Shiho

His voice faded to a strained whisper as the visions in his mind once more began to slip out of clarity, falling away and running together as the elusive memories slipped back into darkness. As a sleeper being jarred awake, Joker once more found himself abandoning his recollections and slipping back into the cold, hard reality of his present. His throat was dry and heavy from speaking so long. The countless cuts and bruises from his interrogations and beatings continued to throb in protest. He was aware of a growing, aching pain in the back of his head like every caffeine addicted headache he had developed when skipping his morning coffee at Leblanc over the past year was now coming back to haunt him at the same time.

Slowly, painfully he raised his eyes back up to the intense stare of Sae Niijima. She sat across from him in the dark, bleak chamber that they shared. Her arms were crossed, the scowl on her face a blend of judgment, wonder and focus as she took in his account (again weighing each piece of information, whether to trust it or discard it, and once more reassessing her impressions of her now exposed nemesis.

Joker said nothing, expecting another prompt to help center his mind and provide a place to pick up the narrative he was untangling for the both of them. The silence stretched on and on. Joker's eyes narrowed in exhaustion and confusion. The look Sae was giving him had changed slightly. This wasn't the vicious, judgmental stare she had first confronted him with, nor the bewildered and awe filled look she occasionally assumed when the details of his account clicked into place despite the sheer absurdity of his statements, nor even the ever so brief yet increasingly frequent sparks of genuine camaraderie she occasionally flashed his way (despite her every effort, she was growing increasingly FOND of the bastard). This was...pensive, unsure, as if for the first time she was actually hesitant to ask her questions despite the time limit that was dogging them throughout the process. If Joker didn't know any better, he would swear she was starting to blush in the dim light.

"I wasn't going to ask about this...." She sighed at last. "But I need a full account. And as strange as your story has been so far, this incident still stands out to me." She withdrew another picture from her briefcase and slid it across the table to him.

Joker's eyes widened in disbelief as he began to remember. He felt his own face flushing to match his interrogator's as the events began to play out in his mind. He covered his mouth to hide the noise which threatened to escape from his throat, a combination of a laugh, a groan, and a small sigh of glee. The photo showed a familiar young woman, face contorted in a cry of dismay and terror, her body completely naked and poorly hidden behind her hands. Small black bars blotted out her exposed anatomy and hid her eyes from view, but Joker of course immediately knew her name.

"Shiho Suzui. I believe you know that name quite well. According to your own testimony it was her attempted suicide that spurred you to become phantom thieves in the first place. A volleyball player of middling skill, and a close associate of Ann Takamaki. She has since transferred to a different school hoping to start over. And then this incident occurred. Tell me, who would do this to her? What depraved, perverted, degenerate human being would put her through still more humiliation and embarrassment than she has already suffered?"

Joker cleared his throat, his mind still fuzzy from the **** and trying to decide whether he felt more mortified or ecstatic about what his friend had gone through. Finally, he spoke, his voice cracking slightly. "All right. This is how it began..."