Chapter 68: Questions

The silence in the room had barely settled when the door opened once more, and Yuki Nakamura stepped back inside, followed by another officer holding a notepad.

This time, her demeanor was more focused, her eyes darting between the three of them before finally resting on Yuna.

"Before we get into anything else," Yuki began, her voice sharp but calm, "I'd like to start with you, Yuna."

Yuna froze, her hand tightening around Kai's arm.

For some strange reasons, Hina wasn't feeling jealous at all.

She was 100% focused on Yuki Nakamura.

Yuna's face drained of color, and her eyes, wide with fear, flicked nervously toward Hina and Kai before finally landing on Yuki.

She's not to blame since she wasn't used to these kind of situations.

And that was actually normal.

"How were you abducted, Yuna?" Yuki asked, her tone more direct now, as if this was a simple procedural question, but the intensity in her gaze suggested otherwise.

Yuna swallowed hard, her throat visibly tightening.

She hesitated, her mind racing through the events.

She had relived this nightmare so many times already despite it happened the same day.

The images of what she saw replayed in her mind every single moment.

But now she had to recount it in front of a detective who wasn't just looking for the truth; she was looking for cracks in the story.

"It all happened so fast," Yuna began, her voice barely above a whisper. "I… I just… I was just walking home but I met my friend Hana and decided to stay with her for a talk…

I remember feeling someone following me. At first, I thought I was just imagining it, but then…" She paused, her breath catching in her throat as her hands trembled in her lap.

Yuna then switched her glaze to Kai and Hina, to find any kind of reassurance from them.

Hina turned her head towards her and smiled.

"Don't worry. You can say everything to the detective… she's here to help us…" she then moved her eyes towards Yuki. "Right ?" Hina marked her last word with a gentle but also deadly whisper.

She probably wanted to evidence the fact that Yuki Nakamura didn't care abuout Yuna at all since all she was trying to do was nothing more than routine.

Kai, on the other hand, gently patted her back and smiled reassuringly, like he wanted to say "it's okay…"

At Hina's words, an invisible expression of frustration and anger was visible on Yuki Nakamura's face, but she tried her best to maintain her posture.

She ignored Hina's provocation and turned her gaze towards Yuna.

"Don't worry, Yuna. You're safe now." Yuki said, with a fake-reassuringly tone.

Yuna looked at her and then took a deep breath.

Yuki's gaze remained steady, unrelenting.

"Then what happened?" she pressed.

Yuna blinked, forcing herself to focus. "Then, someone grabbed me from behind. It was so sudden—I didn't even have time to react. They put something over my mouth. I think it was a cloth… soaked in some chemical… the only thing I remember before losing consciousness were Hana's terrified look and screams… but luckily they completely ignored her"

Kai, Hina and Yuki were carefully listening Yuna's testimony.

She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment, trying to keep the terror at bay.

"After that, everything went dark. The next thing I knew, I woke up in a room. It was cold, and I couldn't move. My wrists were tied, and there was tape over my mouth." Her voice cracked slightly as she remembered the sensation of helplessness.

Yuki nodded, writing down a few notes, but her gaze never softened. "Do you remember anything about your captors? Did you see their faces or hear their voices?"

That was a difficult question.

Yuna clearly knew that Haruto was behind all of this, but she had the feeling that she didn't have to tell Yuki, despite she probably already knew everything.

Yuna shook her head slowly. "No… I didn't see them clearly. They were always masked, and they spoke in whispers. But… I could feel that there were more than one of them." Her voice faltered as she looked down at her hands.

Yuki narrowed her eyes, her pen hovering over the notepad. "And how long were you held before Kai and Hina found you?"

Yuna hesitated again, trying to recall the sequence of time. "I'm not sure… despite it has been a short time… it felt like days since every second could be my last… It was hard to tell because I was kept in the dark most of the time..."

Yuki glanced at Kai and Hina for a brief moment, as if evaluating how much their accounts aligned with Yuna's.

Then she refocused on Yuna.

"Did they ever tell you what they wanted? Did they threaten you in any way?" She asked, in a direct and cold voice.

Yuna bit her lip, her hands twisting together in her lap. "They didn't say much… but I could tell they wanted something. I think they were waiting for something… or someone." Her voice trailed off, and she glanced at Hina, as if unsure how much more she should say.

She was telling too many lies.

Yuna was probably scared to have any kind of consequences.

Yuki caught the glance and her expression sharpened, her gaze flicking between the two girls before landing back on Yuna. "And you believe that Kai and Hina rescued you? Without any outside help?"

Yuki knew that she was lying, but she decided to play along with her.

Yuna hesitated, her gaze shifting again to Kai. She nodded slowly. "Yes… they saved me." Her voice trembled slightly, but her words were firm.

Yuki leaned back in her chair, studying Yuna's face closely, as if searching for any signs of deceit.

After a long moment of silence, she closed her notepad and stood up.

"Thank you, Yuna," she said, her voice softening just a fraction. "That will be all for now."

Yuna breathed a small sigh of relief, though the tension in the room still lingered heavily.

Yuki's eyes moved to Hina next, and the subtle shift in the air made it clear that the real battle was about to begin.

But for now, Yuki stepped out of the room again, leaving them alone in the suffocating silence once more.

As the door clicked shut behind her, Yuna let out a shaky breath, her body visibly relaxing now that the intense scrutiny was momentarily lifted.

Kai turned to her, his voice barely a whisper. "Are you okay?"

Yuna nodded slowly, though her hands still trembled in her lap. "I just want this to be over," she whispered back, her voice filled with exhaustion.

Hina remained silent, her gaze fixed on the door where Yuki had exited.

She knew that this was far from over.

The questions Yuki had asked were just the beginning.

The detective would be back soon, and the next round of interrogation would be far more intense.

More than that, she was about to interrogate both Kai and Hina.

And that probably was the moment that Hina was waiting…

Her eyes narrowed slightly as she prepared herself mentally for the next stage of this game.

Yuki Nakamura was coming for her, and Hina was ready.