The descent into their latest hell is stopped by a jam in the gears behind the wall, just as Emi comes eye to eye with woman in a full hazmat suit. Emi looks up, blood leaking past her implanted one-size-fits-most eyeballs as they scan down the inmate’s body: Inmate Number 321298 (Ha-Yun). War Crimes. Cyborg. Specialization: Biological Weapons. Balance: -￥8,276,192. Personality: Experimental.
“I’d close my mouth, if I were you,” Ha-Yun warns behind her clear facemask.
Liam mumbles something about not being able to close his mouth, which Ha-Yun ignores by pretending Emi is the only spinning inmate hanging before her.
“I’d listen to her, if I were you…which I kind of am, so please listen to me.”
Ha-Yun double-checks her white coat is buttoned, then unspools the thick hose from the wall and pulls back the handle using her gloved hands. Water blasts the bloodied inmates straight in the face, tearing their skin and adding a fresh coat of blood that reappears as fast as it is washed away.
Emi spits, water spilling from her mouth and nose while she chokes.
“I tried to warn you…Just when you were thinking you’d never drink bleach again.”
You can’t just tell me what to do; you have to tell me why! And I command you to stop reading my subconscious thoughts.
“The poll results are in; everyone is laughing at you.” Bee throws the poll she is referring to open across Emi’s display, so she has no choice but to read it:
[Viewer, how frustrated are you by Emi’s unwillingness to accept help continuing to land her in these inconvenient situations? Not at all, it’s funny—100% (1 vote)]
So, by everyone you mean one person?
“At least he cares enough to vote!”
When at last the water stops blasting her in the barely hanging on foot, Liam and Emi swirl around like pinatas coughing out water instead of candy, the feeling of drowning at least making them forget the horrible pressure that comes with hanging upside down.
“What would father think if he looked at you now? He had such high expectations…” Ha-Yun grins a bit too wide for her jawbone to be natural behind the square face of the hazmat suit. Her natural tan—despite not touching sunshine in years—makes her teeth appear even whiter than they are.
Emi starts to fight; her feverish body is freezing cold as it shakes water free from her still clinging on Hachijo Prison Uniform. “Let me go!”
Bee adds, “Please.”
Ha-Yun gives Emi a push, sending her rocking as if trying to air dry her a bit faster, “The disabled princess still lives…I had my doubts you’d make it through.”
“I’ve survived worse,” Emi spits.
The woman turns away, “I wasn’t talking to you, Devil’s Daughter. I meant this pissant.”
Bee shouts, “Don’t talk about our boyfriend like that!”
Ha-Yun laughs, “Thanks for that; I haven’t heard a joke that good since leaving the city.”
Liam spits water at his former ally: “You’ve had your fun…now let me down, blaggard.”
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“As you wish,” Ha-Yun presses down on a button at her foot. Far above, the hook holding their ropes opens.
Both hostages crash face first onto the concrete with just out-of-sync thuds.
Liam spits, a silver tooth sounds like a dropped coin as it bounces unpredictably over the concrete, “You twisted bitch! Do you have any clue how much that will cost me?”
Ha-Yun laughs some more as she removes the towel from his mouth, enjoying herself already, “Please tell me that tooth was a loaner—who owns it? Jacoby? Petry? Please tell me it’s Petry’s.”
Watching the man who thought he was tough crawl around on the ground in search of a missing tooth makes even Emi smile her bloodied smile.
Ha-Yun turns on a dime, suddenly serious, “Ah, there’s that famous smile.”
“More infamous, really,” Bee clarifies.
What are you talking about? Emi is still forgetting her rise to fame.
Liam looks at Emi, as if he thinks himself threatening while he crawls with his hands still searching around a cold-looking table rising from the concrete, “What are you laughing at? You’re missing more teeth than me.”
Bee responds truthfully, “True…last we saw them, they were bone deep in your ass.”
Ha-Yun laughs as she picks at the knot keeping Emi’s ropes tied, remembering the snake hanging from the man’s rear-end and refusing to let go. “That companion of yours sure is a scrappy, bastard. Took all of Matviy’s resilience to pull him free.”
“You pulled it off?” Liam stops his search to weigh just how many pounds of flesh the snake took with him, “You gowls!”
Ha-Yun gives up on undoing the knot, a scalpel appearing in her hand, “Relax, it was mostly fat anyways.”
The moment Emi’s arms are free, she tries to grab the cannibalistic woman, but her arms won’t function. Why don’t my arms work?
“Short circuiting on account of improper storage,” Bee reports.
“What do you want with me?” Emi asks for what feels like the hundredth time.
Ha-Yun finishes circling the cut bamboo-rope around her arm to prolong its useful life, “Our hypothesis is, The Devil has abandoned you, but we’re scientists, so we have no choice but to test our theory until we have indisputable proof.”
“And if the proof is contrary to your hypothesis?” Bee asks.
Liam shouts over her, “What about me? All I did was punch her! You’re going to do far worse than that to her.”
Ha-Yun rolls her eyes, then the hose, “Matsu has lost his patience for you. My hypothesis has always been all your toughness is just overcompensation for who you are inside.”
Liam sticks out her chest, “I’m made of steel, inside and out!”
“No, you’re worthless…your parts on the other hand,” Ha-Yun shrugs her diabolical smile and spins the oversized scalpel as if it just reformed again in the air. She keeps smiling as she presses the tip to his chest, “I always hated this stupid shirt.”
Emi tilts her head to read the shirt: I’M AN ASSHOLE SO IF YOU DON’T WANT YOUR FEELINGS HURT WALK AWAY.
Liam screams even before the thin blade draws a perfect red line from his solar plexus to his scrawny waistline. “Please, no. I’ll do anything.”
Ha-Yun reports her findings to the microphone in her ears, “Subject 301485 is crying. Hypothesis confirmed. Beginning harvest.”
“You always play with your food?” Emi asks the question aloud.
Ha-Yun pauses, giving a sideways tilt to the second subject in her care. She smiles wide, maintaining eye contact with Emi as she pulls Liam’s stomach open, revealing what’s inside before at last looking back down at what she is doing. “Stop all that screaming, I can see the air leaving your lungs—and it appears I was correct; there’s nothing made of steel in here.”
Emi starts to squirm, using her cheek to push herself away.
Ha-Yun continues her inspection, “How many shots has this liver taken—good god, man. You’re a walking stereotype.”
Bee stupidly interrupts, as if seducing him is still a viable option, “Don’t touch his heart—that belongs to me.”
Ha-Yun laughs while Liam looks at Emi, confused and irate at the ridiculousness of the statement that just came out of her voice box under these circumstances. The surgeon follows his eyes to Emi, “You must be the man of the relationship; upon introspection it appears you’re the only patient here at the moment with any balls.”
Liam starts to fight but stops moving once he spots the organs inside his stomach squirming with him.
Emi rubs her cheek faster over the ground, managing to make it almost a full meter before Ha-Yoon reaches her. “I’m sorry for neglecting your care. Do you have an itch? I’ll take care of that for you.”
“Please, whatever my father did to you, I had nothing to do with it,” Emi pleads.
In shock, Liam starts to laugh, sending his exposed organs into erratic spasms. Ha-Yun checks her protective gear is secure yet again, then turns a nob hanging beside the table as she joins him in laughter as if it’s infectious.
Ha-Yun is the only one still laughing by the time black smoke has filled the room: “The Devil’s Daughter, innocent…now that’s got to be the funniest joke I’ve ever heard.”
The black smoke reminds Emi of night, which puts her to sleep as Ha-Yun’s laughter fades like a lullaby.
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