The air in the abandoned warehouse tasted of rust and Dust motes danced in the single shaft of moonlight piercing through the shattered skylight, illuminating the girl tied to the center of the room.
The corrupted magical girl strained against her restraints, the coarse rope biting into her wrists. As her consciousness flickered back to life, her head looked upward.
"Huh? Where… where am I?"
I stepped out from the shadows, the heels of my boots clicking rhythmically against the concrete. Her eyes widened, the hazy confusion replaced by a sharp, jagged spark of recognition.
"You!" she spat, the memory of our earlier encounter finally catching up to her.
"We can do this the easy way, or we can do this the hard way," I said, my voice eerily calm even to my own ears. "It really depends on how much you value your skin."
"You bitch," she hissed, baring teeth stained with dark mana. "I'm not telling you a damn thing."
I didn't offer a witty retort. Instead, I moved with a sudden, fluid violence, driving a hunting knife deep into her left leg.
"AAAHHHH!" The scream tore through the cavernous space, echoing off the corrugated metal walls. She writhed in the chair, her body arching in a desperate attempt to escape the steel.
"Hard way it is, then," I whispered. I gripped the hilt and gave the blade a slow, deliberate twist.
"Agh—!" Her scream died down into a guttering groan, her breath coming in ragged hitches.
"Tell me what I want to know, and I might just let you live." I felt a cold heat spreading through my chest. A sadistic smile pulled at my lips a mask I didn't even realize I was wearing.
"You're… you're a crazy bitch, you know that?" she wheezed, her defiance flickering but not yet extinguished.
"I don't know what you're talking about," I replied, letting go of the hilt and leaving the knife buried in her muscle. "From where I'm standing, I only see one crazy bitch here. And she's currently bleeding on my floor."
I leaned in closer, my shadow swallowing her whole. "Now then. Let's try again. Tell me what you know."
"Go to hell!"
I didn't hesitate. I grabbed the knife again, twisting it in the opposite direction. The girl's screams reached a new, glass-shattering pitch.
"AHHHH! Okay! Okay! Stop! Please, just stop!"
I paused, looking directly into her blown-out pupils. "Talk."
"Okay… okay… our Master, he has this… this amazing, giant—"
Before the filth could leave her mouth, I drew a second blade and buried it in her other thigh.
"AAAGH! You monster!"
"Start answering truthfully," I warned, my voice dropping an octave. "Or the next one goes in your throat."
"Like hell I'll talk to a lapdog like you," she spat.
Inside the mental landscape of my subconscious, a low, gravelly voice vibrated against my skull.
"This is getting us nowhere," Nux grumbled.
"True," I thought back, wiping a spray of blood from my cheek. "But we need that information."
"One last try," Nux suggested, a dark hunger underlying his tone. "Then it's my turn."
"Fine. Why not?"
I refocused on the girl, my expression turning unnervingly blank. "One last time. Tell me what I want to know, and you walk out of here alive."
She gathered a mouthful of bloody phlegm and spat it directly onto my cheek. "Fuck yourself."
I sighed, wiping my face with my sleeve. "Nux. Your turn."
The shift was instantaneous. My posture slumped, then snapped back with a predatory grace. A guttural, manic chuckle bubbled up from my throat.
Nux didn't waste time with questions. He lunged forward, kicking the chair over. The girl crashed to the floor, her pinned legs screaming in protest.
"Hehehe… she gave you a chance," Nux's voice came out as a distorted growl. "Now you're stuck with me."
With a flick of his wrist, mana coalesced into a jagged, ethereal chainsaw. The roar of the engine filled the warehouse, a mechanical beast hungry for flesh. The girl's eyes went wide with pure, unadulterated terror.
"Wait! Wait! I'll talk! I'll—"
"Too late for that! Hahaha!" Nux roared over the drone of the blade as he pulled the starter cord one more time.
[Location: Unknown]
A phone vibrated on a mahogany desk. A hand reached out, clicking the speakerphone.
"How is she?" a synthesized voice asked.
"She's getting close," a watcher replied, staring at a monitor showing the warehouse's heat signatures.
"But her heart is still too pure. If she had truly snapped, we'd have a much more powerful asset on our side by now."
"Keep an eye on her. She doesn't understand the politics of the Magical Girl world yet, but she isn't stupid."
The watcher let out a condescending snort. "Oh, she's definitely dumb. She hasn't even realized what I am yet—she thinks I'm just another 'mascot.' But I'll give her credit: she's a fast learner. She's connecting the dots quicker than expected."
"Mhm. Just keep the reports coming. I want to know if her power levels are still climbing."
The line went dead, leaving the watcher in the dark.