Inside Your Mind

45 - Shinsou

Such beautiful dreams of violence, in them your tongue is made of silver.

Half an hour was over faster than Kaori Shinsou thought it would be. There weren't a whole lot of new things that they had learnt - Stain mostly just confirmed a good few theories they had about him. He admitted to killing a few Yakuza guys a good while back under the name Stendhal. That was something more or less new. It had been a suspicion of the police for a while, but now it was finally confirmed.

Apparently, after Akaguro dropped out of basic training in first year, he started working on his manifesto and preaching on the streets about it - the 'Revival of Heroics'. He was criticizing doing good for the sole purpose of fame and fortune, which was a fairly popular view. Still, no one would listen to him.

After the death of his parents it led to the disillusioned teenager starting to train with several weapons and self-studying. It got quiet around him and no one ever heard of Chizome Akaguro again. Then someone called Stendhal popped out. No one knew who he was, only that he was associated with a group of vigilantes that made waves in the Naruhata area for a while and with some weird drug that was going around at the time.

Stendhal wasn't really a big deal at the time, he mostly laid low. He did kill some Yakuza guys, though and then vanished again. Shortly after that Stain started murdering. And now - 17 deaths and 24 life-altering injuries - here she was. Sitting opposite Stain in the visitor's room in Tartarus.

A door had just opened and two officers walked into the room on Stain's side. Kaori had barely noticed the time passing. She was surprised it had already been half an hour. Aizawa looked like he had expected them to come in any minute. Kaori was glad he was here with her. She genuinely believed that she would have lost her shit any second, if he hadn't been there with her.

It was one thing to arrest someone while they were at the scene of a crime, murdering someone, but seeing them again in prison after the fact? Talking to them as if nothing had happened? That was a completely different beast and it was more difficult than people thought.

"Sorry, your time is up." one of the officers said. Kaori thought she remembered him. His late night snacks were chocolate chip cookies. She remembered always bringing some if she was on a night shift with him.

"Oh, that's a shame. And I didn't even get to talk to the lovely lady." Stain said, a jackal smile on his face.

"Well, now's your chance to tell me whatever you wanted to tell me. If you make it quick." Kaori said with a smile. She had no idea where that came from, but something about him had made her feel at ease.

"Well, aren't you a curious one? You know what I think? You're not doing this job because you're interested in helping people like me or because you want to prevent crime. You are curious. You like seeing a sick mind and slowly dissecting it, don't you? I think it fascinates you. Evil fascinates you. It's like you wish you could do it yourself, but you're too much of a coward to murder someone with your bare hands... But you sure enjoy hearing about it, don't you? You're sick, girl. Your head's sick." he said with a twisted grin on his face. He looked into her eyes, as if he was staring right into her soul.

Kaori gulped audibly. The grin on Stain's face got wider. Kaori had a black out. She didn't know how to react. Why did she let her guard down? She knew better than to let her guard down! It was like there was some fog in her mind and she just couldn't get out a word. Aizawa stood up next to her.

"That's enough, Stain. We'll talk to you another time." he said calmly. The officers got Stain's wheelchair and started moving him out of the room. Aizawa said back down, while Kaori was still staring at the spot Stain had been at.