The Assassins Game

Chapter 23- Inquiry

Back with the puns. My fingers are half frozen and typing is hard so bear with me please. Actually tho that took me three minutes.

Line POV

Line was slowly going crazy. Not being able to hear and being paranoid as she was, it was scary just to be awake. She was in a room full of unfamiliar people who were currently writing down questions to ask her. While Line felt it was necessary mostly so they knew she could be trusted, she wasn't looking forward to it. Sho's mouth moved and people formed a line in front of Line. Something touched Line's shoulder and she flinched so hard she hit the wall. "Fricking...don't touch me without letting me know who you are." 'Samu's concerned  face came into vision. She waved him off. The first person in line (Mattsun) came up with his paper. Aka took the paper and read it out loud before handing it to Line for her to read.

"How old were you when you first killed someone"

"I was 11" she told them. "It was literally less than a week ago." He said something Line couldn't make out. She was done. "FUCK IT SORRY TETSU I CANNOT DEAL WITH THIS RIGHT NOW!" she yelled. Everyone was so surprised at her colorful language, that they were still in shock when Line ripped the bandage and gauze off of her right ear. She almost cried from the pain, but she could hear. Line would get Tetsu to put it back later. 

"So anyways..." she said "Next?" Next was a boy with hair shaped like a turnip. "Can you teach us how to spin knives like Hinata does?" That question made Line angry. Before anyone could blink Line had two fingers lightly pressing on a pressure point under the boys ribs. "Don't" she whispered dangerously. "Don't think that learning to be like this was easy. Don't think I came out of it the same person, don't think I didn't sacrifice things, people to become like this." Line knew her bloodlust was leaking but at the moment she didn't care. Until someones hand rested gently on top of her arm. She looked up to Aka's dark eyes. "Line" he said. "He didn't know. You need to calm down." Line sighed and removed her arm. Great. Now everyone knew she wasn't completely defenseless after all. She turned around and saw a new-found respect in Sho's eyes. Line realized that he hadn't been there on friday night because he was dealing with Tada. Line felt a strange sense of achievement from proving to Sho that she could protect herself. Finally the next person came up. And then the next. And the next. Most of them were easy questions. Did she still go to school? No. What kind of weapons did she use? Knives and needles. Did she know the names of the people she had killed? No. Tetsu, Aka, and Sho gave her confused looks on that one. Line would have to ask them later. Why do all three of you wear the same jacket in different colors? So we can identify each other. Do you work for somebody? Line paused at that one. "Technically yes" she said. "But I don't really know who." Why did you three start working together? We all work for the same person, and we got side-tracked. Why did all of your ears turn black? Line looked at Sho, Aka, and Tada, and noticed that the tips of their ears were also wrapped in bandages. "We've been outside for the past three days, so we got frostbite from that"  'Samu raised his hand and Line nodded at him. "Wait so you've been outside for THREE WHOLE DAYS. Its been below freezing almost that entire time..." "It's not as if we had any other choice you know" Line told him. "And I was unconcious for most of it anyway so everyone else had it worse than I did." 'Samu and 'Sumu looked like they wanted to say something else but Line called the next person forward. Thankfully it was also the last person. Line was pretty sure Tetsu had called him Kenma. Kenma walked forward and made eye-contact with Line. His eyes made him look like he was a cat, and the way he was slightly glaring at her made her feel trapped. Finally after a small stare down, he asked his question. "How exactly do you know, and what is your relationship with Kuroo."

Kuroo POV

Kuroo's heart fell into his stomach. Kenma had put so much venom into those words that Line was visibly shaking. Kenma didn't get angry often but when he did, it was absolutely terrifying for whoever was on the receiving end. And Line may be an assassin but she was still a 4'6'' 11 year old girl, who got scared of people ridiculously easily. After a couple seconds Kuroo stepped forward his arms out and said "Kenma your scaring her." Kenma turned his glare on Kuroo. "If its an easy question to answer, it wouldn't scare her now would it?" Kuroo tried again. "Kenma you are literally a foot and a half taller than her, death glaring, and considering her past experiences, I don't think its the question she's scared of." Kenma sighed and his glare softened a bit before turning back to Line. "Line, I promise I'm not going to hurt you, can you just answer the question please?" Line shook her head. "I can't answer that question. I literally cannot" she told Kenma. Kenma turned to Kuroo. "Then can you answer that question? Kuroo weighed his options. He could either tell the truth and risk his entire team turning on him, or he could think of a believable lie, that knowing him, Kenma would see straight through. To be honest, Kuroo was pretty sure Kenma had figured it out, he just wanted confirmation. To test this, he asked Kenma "Why do you want to know? It's not really anything crazy..." Kenma glared back at Kuroo. "First of all, you knew her name when those four first showed up. Second of all, you when you were trying to warm them up you said "Those of you with agents bring them over to me". You called them agents, as if you already knew they who they were working for. And when Line woke up, she automatically called you Tetsu, a shortened version of your first name. I don't know many people other than Oikawa who would do that without knowing somebody. Finally, if you watched closely you would realize that she looks up to you, and respects you for no apparent reason. So do tell Kuroo. How EXACTLY do you know her." Kuroo looked at Kenma with a straight face, but on the inside he was shocked. Kenma had figured all of that out just by watching Line and him. At this point Kuroo really didn't have any other options. 

He stepped forward so that he was in front of Line. In a loud voice he said "I'm one of them. I'm a big three meaning I am one of the top three agents. Aka is one too. Line acts like that towards me because where we are from, we are like a giant family. I am basically a big brother to them." Kenma was apparently expecting most of that answer, because he didn't look surprised until he started talking about the big three. "Exactly how many of you are there?..." Kenma questioned. Kuroo answered "At the moment, there is 23 of us, most being between 11-19, though some of them are younger then that, I think the youngest one is 6?" Kuroo saw Aka facepalm before saying. "Tetsu....you literally just gave him more information than he asked for. Your going to get yourself killed like us!" Bokuto looked horrified at the idea of his counterpart being killed. Kuroo looked Aka dead in the eyes. "Aka if they don't trust us we're dead anyways. It would be ridiculously easy for one of them to betray us to the police and if that happens we die. You know the rule 23 right?" The serials looked at the floor or away from people. Line looked like she might cry. "Whats the rule?..." Nishinoya questioned. The serials looked up and spoke in strong voices. "Don't get captured alive." There were gasps from around the room. "Kuroo?..." Kenma started. "How many people have you killed?..." There were snorts of laughter from the serials. "What?" Kenma asked them. Sho tried to tell them while laughing hysterically. "At headquarters we have this enormous cork board." Line continued, "It has everyones names and kill counts. Usually agents don't care very much, since most of us don't want to kill in the first place, but there is one name that isn't there." Kuroo raised his hand. "Its mine in case anyone hasn't figured that out yet." Aka finished the story. "Tetsu's kill count is one of the 10 agent mysteries. A lot of people, especially the littles got really into it especially once we added a reward for figuring it out. Tetsu, whats the reward at right now?" "6 months of big three privileges!" Kuroo chimed in. "AND NONE OF YOU ARE EVER GOING TO FIGURE IT OUT!" he yelled. The rest of the serials stuck their tongues out at him as he laughed. Seriously though they were NEVER going to figure it out. Sho stood up from where he was sitting. "So what now?" he asked them. Kuroo thought for a while before saying, "Sorry Sho, but I can't help. You know what happens if I do." Sho nodded sadly. Surprisingly a certain blonde raised his hand. "You can stay at my house" Tsukishima told them. Sho had a shocked look on his face. Then Tsukki...blushed? "It's not because I think your cool or anything, Im just not for letting an 11 year old girl freeze to death." he explained. "SALTYSHIMA YOU DO CARE!" Sho yelled. "Shut up you shrimp" Tsukki mumbled. Aka stood up too. "Tsukishima don't you have an older brother?" Aka asked. Tsukki nodded. "Yeah I do. But my Mom is with her sister, and Akiteru is at college. Also he may be annoying as hell, but he can keep a secret. Akaashi nodded and pulled Yamaguchi, Sho, and Line together. "ALSO IF ANY OF YOU EVEN THINK ABOUT BETRAYING THEM JUST REMEMBER THAT I AM HIGHER RANKED THEN AKAASHI!" Hopefully that statement was enough to keep them from telling the police. "We shouldn't leave now. It's broad daylight and somebody could see you" Tsukki said. Daichi pointed to a set of doors and said "If you guys want you can sleep in there until it gets dark at least." Line sighed in happiness. "I know I was unconcious for almost two days but sleep sounds amazing..." The rest of the serials nodded. Daichi walked over with them and unlocked the door so that they could get inside. "Hold up Line!" Kuroo called. "Ear!" Line groaned. "I was hoping you forgot..." she mumbled. Line sat still while Kuroo re-bandaged her ear, making her pretty much deaf again. She turned to the serials and said loudly, "I SWEAR TO FUCKING GOD IF ONE OF YOU SCARES ME IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT IM GOING TO KILL YOU" Atsumu nudged her for language but Kuroo almost laughed again. Apparently Kiri and everyone else had taught Line their vast vocabulary of swear words within two days. Finally they all got comfortable in the room and Daichi shut and locked the door again, giving the key to Tsukishima. At that exact moment the coaches walked in through the main doors and announced that it was time to load up the busses again. As Kuroo lay in his bed later that night he thought about everything that had happened that day. He heard Teru's quiet snores from the other side of the room, and the absence of Akaashi's constant moving around. He remembered things that Line had said, and frowned. Starting tomorrow, Kuroo was going to get some answers.

A/N

These long chapters are getting faster to write. Maybe I'll get some actual goddamn work done today. Four days in a row? Its actually kind of nice to be like sit down in the morning and write a chapter. I got my earbuds taken away for some stupid fucking reason though so its slightly less fun. I'm considering writing one-shots or side stories for some of the characters so you can get their actual backstories, because some of them I can actually flesh out. Would you be interested in reading those? Heres the discord link again if anyone wants to come. Tomorrow if I post will probably be the last chapter for about a week because of Thanksgiving and my birthday. I know they don't celebrate Thanksgiving but Im considering writing a side chapter anyways, mostly to introduce more characters. See you tomorrow!