“Why Did You Do It?”

One of Salute’s heads looked back as he planted a claw on the door.

“…Are you ready?”

Ennea didn’t know how to answer that. Because she wasn’t, but knew there was no other choice. If they wanted to figure out just what happened with Autumnal’s speech, they had to exhaust all possible options.

That meant….

Ennea shook her head, forcing herself forward. “Ready as I’ll ever be.”

With nothing more than a nod, Salute pushed the door open. It creaked and groaned the whole way, crying out and mirroring how both of them felt inside.

The duo sulked on over to the bars. Though rusted, they were glowing with heat. A necessary precaution.

A Sawsbuck stood tall on the other side. Even with the splint on one of her legs, she still managed to stride around like nothing was wrong.

“Salute,” Hiketeria greeted. “It’s good to see you again. Is Osteon still falling asleep on the job?”

The Zweilous flinched. His claws dug into the filthy stone bricks beneath them, never relaxing even as he forced himself to speak. “…No. But he hasn’t been getting enough rest. His reaction time is still too slow.”

“Speak with more projection,” she commanded. “He’ll never listen if you don’t tell him with authority.”

Salute took the advice, going rigid as he spoke again. “Sir. This isn’t a chat. It’s an interrogation.”

“Very well.” Hiketeria marched on up to the bars, glancing over Ennea disinterestedly. “Is the Vulpix not here?”

Ennea’s teeth gnashed. “Of course not! I’m not—!” She took a shaky breath. “I’m not letting you anywhere near him after what you did.”

“That’s incorrect. It’s what he did.”

There was no need to dignify that with a response. Ennea just glared.

“Come now, you must have realized I was aiming for you,” Hiketeria explained at the request of no one. “You were in the way.”

She said it like it was just business. Like it wasn’t an attempt on Ennea’s life. One that would’ve succeeded were it not for Autumnal taking the hit and nearly dying himself.

“Guess… you must hate me, huh?” Ennea struggled to find the words. “If you wanted me dead that bad.”

“No, nothing of the sort.”

Though shocked, Ennea could only deepen her scowl.

“I was confused and frustrated.” Hiketeria sprouted a fan of leaves from her hoof and began to dust off the bricks beneath her. They were spotless. Her side of the cell looked nicer than the outside at this point. “I understand my error now, so rest assured, it won’t—”

Salute stomped the ground, a gavel demanding order. “Stop.” He turned to Ennea. “Don’t let her take control. Stay on topic.”

“Excellent. You’ve come quite a long way, Salute. But be sure that you keep all conversation between each other private. The interrogee should always be left in the dark.”

The sigh Salute gave was nearly inaudible, but both the interrogators were sure Hiketeria heard it.

“Why’d you do it?” Ennea asked quietly.

“This again?” Hiketeria blew the dust off her leaf fan. “I was quite clear the last dozen times I was asked.”

“Yeah, well you were never asked by me.”

“Very well. Money. That’s all.”

Ennea growled. “No. That’s a good enough reason for Chim, but not for you. You planned this for years. Why do it now?”

“It seemed to be a good time to leave.”

“Dammit, I know it has to do with the sewers somehow!” Ennea grabbed a bar and immediately regretted it. After shaking off the burn it gave her pawpads, she continued. “There’s a Mystery Dungeon down there and you knew it. But instead of reporting it, you kept it secret. So you must know something about how it got there in the first place, it’s the only explanation that makes sense for why you’d do that!”

The was a moment of silence. Only the low rumble of the cell’s atmosphere could keep them company. Did that mean Ennea was onto something?

Hiketeria stepped right up to the bars, hooves clacking the whole way. Her face was utterly cold, despite the bars’ heat casting a glow upon it.

“The town council is such a pain,” she lectured. “You can relate, I’m sure. Were they to know, it would be months of needless bureaucracy and red tape, not to mention the Overgrowth Guild getting involved. I’d lose control over my own town. I will do whatever it takes to fight that.”

Ennea blinked and shifted her mouth from side to side. Is that really her reason? Control? Sounds close enough like her, but….

No, at least part of that’s a lie. It doesn’t add up. She wanted to keep control over the town, but was about to leave it. Her motive doesn’t match her actions.

Ennea wasn’t going to get anything out of Hiketeria on this. Whatever her motives were, they didn’t make sense. Something was missing, and the Sawsbuck knew that. So she could spout off whatever she wanted, and they’d have nothing more convincing. It was a dead end.

Ennea looked up to Salute for support. “Don’t let her take control,” he had said. That meant a subject change.

Well, best to just move on to what Ennea was here for. She gathered up the courage needed to look this monster of a Sawsbuck right in her eyes.

“Did you do something to Autumnal’s speech?”

“No, nothing of the sort.” It was a perfectly even response. Either truthful, or very well-rehearsed. Knowing Hiketeria, it was impossible to tell.

“Nothing at all? Isn’t it convenient that the person you framed turned out to be unintelligible?”

Frustratingly, Hiketeria smiled at that. “Yes. It seems I was quite fortunate until you came along.”

“Yeah? Well you did manage to sweet talk me during the investigation.” It was embarrassing, but the compliments Ennea had received completely threw her off the Sawsbuck’s trail. “But I guess that was the point.”

“Not at all.”

Once again, Ennea was caught frustratingly off guard.

“I don’t make a point of lying unnecessarily. Especially when it comes to praise.” Hiketeria took a moment to fix the fluff of fur on her chest. Perfectly orderly, even in the worst of times. “People will never listen if they can’t trust you to be honest with them.”

Hiketeria looked straight at Ennea… but somehow it felt like Ennea was being looked through.

“I meant what I said. You have potential, Ennea. Potential for greatness. I simply didn’t realize you had not yet capitalized on it.”

This praise just felt cold and hollow. Ennea didn’t want Hiketeria to say all of that about her. Ennea wanted her hatred of the Sawsbuck to be mutual. This utterly calm, vaguely affable attitude made Hiketeria impossible to predict; it made Ennea fear an attack far more than if Hiketeria was frothing with rage.

“And what about what you said in the courtroom? Is all of that true, too?”

“Confused frustration. As I said, I didn’t realize you hadn’t—”

“I don’t mean about me.”

Finally, Hiketeria was the one who was thrown off balance. She shut up mid-sentence, blinking a couple of times before all the leaves she’d sprouted wilted and fell to the ground.

“Autumnal,” Ennea clarified slowly. “You said things about him back there. Awful things. You can say you don’t hate me, but you clearly hate him.”

“…Yes, I suppose you could say so.”

Ennea was onto something.

“So you must have known him. You know something about him, and that’s why you did all this!”

Hiketeria scoffed. “No. I’d never met him even once before his sorry body was brought in front of me.”

“Then how?! How in the world could you hate him enough to do all this?!”

The glare Hiketeria gave sapped everything from Ennea. It was a deathly gaze that held contempt, but not for her. It was a reminder that Hiketeria would do anything to achieve her goals, and one of those goals was the murder of her friend.

“I hate him because he’s an utter lowlife,” she spat. “A selfish, greedy bastard who does nothing for the world except stain it. He may not have committed this crime, but I was setting things right by putting him behind bars.

“Taking the fall for me may have been the first good deed he ever was a part of. I’m sure he realized that as well, but it appears you gave him hope that he never should have had. After all, it was him who chose to—”

“Stop!” Ennea cried. “Just shut up! Don’t… don’t you dare talk about my friend like that!” She turned away, trying to keep the Sawsbuck from seeing her wipe a tear from the corner of her eye. “I’m done. You don’t have anything good to say. You’re just… miserable, or something!”

“No. I’m only making the world a better place.”

Ennea’s head whipped back to the monster behind those bars. Her eyes flared, and her body lunged on its own!

Fwap!

But a wing to her chest stopped her from making a costly mistake.

Salute looked down at Ennea and slowly shook his heads. “You’re right. We’re done. There’s nothing more to get out of her.”

The breaths Ennea took came out uneven and heaving. It was only now she realized how badly she was shaking. A pink glow reflected off everything she looked at.

“…Yeah. I don’t want to talk to her anymore. I just wanna see Autumnal.”

The Zweilous gently guided Ennea back out of the confinement room. But despite how careful he was with her, he threw open the door so hard it didn’t have any time to squeal before slamming into the wall with a bang.

“I’ll see you again tomorrow, Salute,” Hiketeria called. “And Ennea, I trust that you’ll learn better judgement in due time.”

Ennea tried her best to block out those words as the door slowly creaked to a close, locking Chief Hiketeria away once more.

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