It was said that the human brain had a final defense mechanism.
When pain became unbearable, pain too deep to live with, the brain would erase the source of that pain from memory, as if it had never happened at all. A mercy built into the architecture of the mind itself.
Maybe it was that mercy that protected Damian.
Because by the time he woke up, the dream was already gone. Nothing left but a vague heaviness behind his eyes that he couldn't trace back to a cause.
BAM!
A notebook slammed onto the metal table inches from his face.
Damian's eyes snapped open.
Sitting across from him was a tall woman with long black hair, wearing a black leather jacket and dark jeans.
Her arms were crossed over her chest, her expression carefully neutral. The man behind her – Brian, the bear-like officer from the school – stood with his hands folded in front of him, watching silently.
"Mr. Damian Valcor."
The woman's voice was crisp.
"I'm Ashley Blackheart, an officer of the SFD. I'm here to discuss what happened at Norrington School today and to take your formal testimony regarding your motives."
Damian studied her for a moment, then the man behind her and then back to her again.
"…Motive?"
"Yes. Mr. Valcor, perhaps you'd like to explain why you tortured the leader after he was already incapacitated. We understand the circumstances around the killings of the other terrorists. What we don't understand is why, after disarming and immobilizing the leader, you chose to render him incapable of speech, sight, or coherent thought."
Her tone remained level, but the weight behind her words was clear.
"He could have been the most valuable intelligence asset we recovered today. Information about the organization behind the attack, their allies, how they hid their operations from federal surveillance long enough to launch an unprecedented assault on a Government school… We could have learned all of that from him."
She paused.
"But… you left him in a state where he can't even tell us his own name."
Damian shifted in his chair.
He crossed one leg over the other, raised his right hand to rest his chin against his fingers, and leaned back with the casual ease of someone who had been interrogated many times before in many different rooms.
His face and clothes were still streaked with dried blood. His crimson eyes caught the harsh overhead light, and when he smiled, slowly and faintly, the effect was deeply unsettling.
He said nothing.
The silence stretched for so long that even Ashley's composure began to shift. Brian's hand twitched toward his sidearm out of pure instinct. He opened his mouth to break the silence –
"…What are you trying to say, Officer?"
Damian's voice was calm, almost amused.
"We have some suspicions regarding your involvement in all of this."
"Hmm... Funny."
His smile widened just slightly.
"Instead of being thanked for saving everyone, I've somehow become a suspect."
"We're not calling you a suspect in this particular crime, Mr. Valcor. But there are some inconsistencies I'd like you to address."
"Go ahead."
He waved his hand lazily, as if granting her permission.
Ashley glanced at Brian. He nodded once and reached over to stop the official recording.
She turned back to Damian and leaned forward slightly.
"This was your first time killing anyone, according to every record we have on you. And yet… you killed in a manner that suggested years of practice."
"I had just survived a bomb blast and terrorists were running through the school murdering students… The last thing on my mind was mercy."
His voice didn't waver.
"As for why I was calm? Adrenaline. Or maybe the fact that my sister was somewhere in that building and every second I wasted 'feeling something' was a second she might not survive… So, I didn't care about the men I was killing. Why would I?"
"The methods you used for the killing and the torture... Everything matches the patterns of a hardened criminal, and trust me, Mr. Valcor, I've spent years studying hardened criminals."
Her eyes locked onto his.
"So tell me… Are you one yourself?"
"No. Next question."
"How did you learn what you did?"
"Human anatomy class."
"This is not a joke!"
Ashley's voice cracked across the table.
"Answer honestly… Everything you did today required practice, repetition and familiarity. You can't tell me you read it in a textbook and walked into Norrington School ready to dismantle a man piece by piece."
"I learned what causes the most pain in human anatomy. I applied that knowledge."
He shrugged faintly.
"That's all there is to it."
"…Why did you leave the leader half-dead?"
For the first time, the smile faded from Damian's face.
He went still.
When he answered, his voice was lower, quieter and stripped of all the mockery he'd been wearing like armor.
"If I'd had more time, I would have kept going."
The room went cold.
"That man pointed a gun at my sister's forehead. I don't care about your laws. I don't care about your protocols. I don't care about your interrogation procedures or your intelligence value or any of the bureaucratic concerns you're hiding behind."
His crimson eyes lifted to meet hers as a mocking look passed through them, as if he knew the Officers couldn't do anything against him.
"If anyone tries to put their hands on my family, they'll beg to be handed over to the SFD by the time I'm done with them. And I'll be honest with you, Officer. If even the highest authorities of the Federation tried to harm my family, I would do exactly the same thing to them that I did to that terrorist."
Ashley's Aura erupted before she could stop it.
The pressure crashed down on Damian like a physical wall, the kind of S Rank presence that should have driven a fifteen-year-old F Rank kid to his knees.
But… Damian didn't flinch, didn't blink and didn't even change his posture.
He just kept looking at her with those tired, blood-streaked crimson eyes.
After a long moment, Ashley pulled her Aura back.
"Mind your words, Valcor… What you just said borders on treason."
"Instead of doing your jobs properly, all you can do is intimidate a fifteen-year-old. That's the SFD for you. You couldn't stop the attack, you couldn't even arrive in time to save the dead and now you're sitting in front of the only person who actually did your job for you, accusing him of being suspicious."
He pushed back from the table.
"I have to say, I'm disappointed in the SFD. You didn't even offer me medical treatment when I walked in here voluntarily.
So… let's end this farce. I'm tired and you have no grounds to hold me. If you have evidence connecting me to the terrorist organization, then arrest me. Right now."
He stood up.
"And if you don't, then use the brains the Federation pays you to use. My sister almost died today and you have the audacity to find ME suspicious!"
He walked past the table, past Ashley, past Brian, and out the door.
Neither of them moved to stop him.
By the time the door clicked shut behind him, both officers were sitting in stunned silence, their expressions pale.
****
Brian was the first to speak.
"…He wasn't wrong, you know. I don't think you should have accused him from the start, ma'am."
"I'm not an idiot, Brian."
Ashley's voice was clipped, controlled, but there was a thread of frustration running beneath it.
"I know he wasn't part of the group that attacked Norrington. That much is obvious. But how do you explain that?"
She gestured sharply toward the monitor where the CCTV footage was still queued up.
Brian followed her gaze and went silent.
"Even if he isn't connected to the Shadow Council or whoever was behind today, there are dozens of other criminal organizations operating across the Federation. Look at his file and look at the data we have on him… Now compare it to the boy you just saw walk out of this room."
She started pacing.
"Does he look like a bored fifteen-year-old waiting to enter an Academy? Does anything about his behavior match his profile? There are no criminal records, nothing and everything in his history is too clean. Suspiciously clean."
Brian was beginning to understand why his superior had pushed so hard.
"He also received an invitation from Stormhold Academy. The reason listed was 'theoretical excellence.' Nothing about his physical capabilities or combat performance.
Yes, he might have started breathing exercises after accepting the invitation, but it's only been a day since the results were announced… Less than a day since he supposedly began Aura training and with a low rank talent, he somehow formed his Aura core in such a short time?"
Her voice grew harder.
"And in that single day, this kid managed to kill sixty-seven terrorists all by himself. Their entire main force, as an F Rank awakener, without learning a single skill from his Academy yet. Tell me how that math works, Brian."
"..."
Brian had no answer.
"Nothing about Damian Valcor matches Damian Valcor."
She stopped pacing and turned to face the gathered officers.
"And that's what scares me. The world has been getting more chaotic in recent years, monster behavior is changing and they are creating issues in patterns we don't understand.
The higher-ups are worried that if things go south, criminal organizations will be the first to side with our enemies. And if a kid like that is connected to one of them and we did nothing, we'll regret it for the rest of our careers."
The other officers in the room had gone solemn as they understood the stakes now.
After a long pause, Ashley exhaled slowly.
"Send everything we have to the Federation and Stormhold Academy. And remove Damian Valcor's records from today's incident, every trace of him being present needs to disappear from the public record."
She paused.
"Also, file a request to have his entire data file classified as Rank S."
Knock knock.
The door opened, and another officer stepped inside.
"Ma'am. We've identified the organization behind the attack."
Everyone in the room turned to look at him…
But the officer hesitated.
"...It's the Shadow Council."
The temperature in the room seemed to drop as every face went grim at the mention of the name.