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INTERROGATION
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A pair of tall, black heels clicked across the concrete floors of the prison hallway. The woman's dark brown hair was strung up into a very messy bun, with errant strands sticking out. A clipboard and pen were in her grasp and she seemed to be in a rush. She was late for something she should have been early for.

To say the villain holding facility was empty would be a lie. In fact, the prison was the most cramped it's been in a long while. Every cell was full and every prison attendee had their hands full.

But the most prominent villains in the prison were being watched over by any pro hero that could spare the time to be babysitters for such evil. Speaking of the heroes... one such pro with dark hair and an even darker expression crossed his arms as he stared at the woman walking towards him down the hallway.

His reddened eyes narrowed as she closed in on his location.

"You're late, Cece," he grumbled to her.

She waved her hand at him, obviously flustered by her own tardiness. "I know, I know. But I'm here now."

Cece, aka Ms. Counselor, was U.A.'s resident student counselor but was by no means a hero. Her quirk, Brutal Honesty, gave her the ability to gain a perfect read on anyone, but at the cost of having to tell the truth in order to achieve such a psychological read. And when circumstances like these arose, she and her ability were needed for much more than just student counseling.

Eraserhead shook his head at her disapprovingly and walked into the room he currently stood guard over. She followed him into the metal viewing area and peered around.

There were dark concrete walls on all sides except for one and very little light to see within the room. The walls were barren and there was a single chair and stack of papers sitting in said chair. On the wall that wasn't entirely concrete there was a thick one-way mirror—they could see into the room before them but the residents of such a room couldn't see them. The window was dimmed and tinted until Eraser pressed on a button next to the door.

The one-way mirror suddenly opened like a shutter and the pair could see into the opposing room. There were three people in the room—two thickly built guards on either side of a woman in a prison uniform, strapped to a metal chair connected to the ground.

The female in the chair had deep black and white hair tied up into a ponytail, intertwined and looping like one long, thick strand of DNA. There was a quirk represser around her neck and cuffs around her wrists and ankles to keep her from moving. And strangely, she had on a blood red mask that was pointed and curved across her entire face. But that wasn't the strangest thing.

The woman stared straight through the one-way mirror, as if she could see through it. Her golden eyes searched the mirror until she landed on Cece, with a stare so cold Cece could feel a chill creep down her spine.

The counselor swallowed, suddenly nervous.

"Why does she still have her mask on?" she asked Aizawa.

He crossed his arms and sighed. "It's stuck to her face. We couldn't get it off."

"Huh... she must have a terrible complexion, then, don't you think? All that sweat build up? Acne galore!" She let out a short laugh as she turned to Aizawa, trying to make a joke out of it.

He gave her a harsh side eye in response and she coughed, choking on her laugh. This probably wasn't the best situation to be cracking jokes in.

He ignored her failed humor and continued, "I'll open up the mirror and you can start talking to her. I need you to get as much information as you can out of her about the League and about herself. She knows more than we have ever given her credit for. It's time we settle that."

Cece nodded once. "I haven't had alcohol in a while so this should be easy!"

"Cece—"

"I know, I know. I'm focused, I'm focused." She took a deep breath in and a short exhale.

Aizawa rolled his eyes and pointed to the chair facing the one-way mirror. Cece pushed the stack of papers off the seat and sat down in the chair, crossing one leg over the other with her clipboard and pen in her lap. She nodded to Aizawa without looking his way and he promptly tapped on a button just next to the one he had pushed earlier.

The one-way mirror suddenly brightened and became clearer as it turned off its mirroring tint. Now both rooms could see through into the other.

The villain strapped to the chair didn't even flinch as she could suddenly see through. In fact, she seemed to relax. Her shoulders released their tension and she leaned back as far as she could in the uncomfortable metal chair. Cece narrowed her eyes at her, trying to seem intimidating.

"Hello. My name is Ms. Counselor. Wraith, correct? And you also go by Miyazaki?" Cece started.

The villain, the Wraith, didn't respond. Her golden eyes stared forward and a smirk was hidden behind her blood red mask.

"'The Perfect Manipulator,'" Cece said as she read off of her clipboard of notes. "It doesn't roll off the tongue very well. You couldn't have come up with something better? Like the Malicious Manipulator? Or the Perfect Perceiver? Something more alliterative?"

The Wraith didn't say a word, she didn't even laugh. But Cece could see her eyebrow raise from behind her mask.

Not a talker?, Cece thought to herself. This shouldn't be too hard.

"Anyway... you've been a member of the League for just about a year now. How's it feel to be playing with the big boys?"

The counselor could hear Aizawa sigh from behind her, already worried about where this interrogation was headed. They had zero faith in her. But Cece couldn't help but laugh at that fact.

The Wraith cocked her head to the side slowly, still unresponsive.

"You feel accepted? Like you belong?"

The villain tilted her head back and closed her eyes, sighing, as if she was bored.

"And what about your parents? What would they say if they saw you now?" Cece paused, suddenly detecting something. "Oh... oh, no. You don't care about them. But you do care about what your mother would think of you. What happened between you and your parents?"

Cece stopped, awaiting some sort of response. But she received nothing. So she pressed on.

"Did you kill your parents?"

The villain snorted. But then she started to laugh, cackle even. Her head lifted off the back of the chair and she leaned forward, laughing to herself as if it tickled her. Cece raised an eyebrow at her. That was not the reaction she was expecting.

"Unfortunately," the Wraith finally said, letting out her sultry and seductive voice. "No, I didn't kill my mother. But we both know I wish I did."

Cece swallowed, biting her cheek. She knew she shouldn't be intimidated by the Wraith, and she wasn't, but there was something about the villain that was just so off-putting to Cece... she couldn't help but feel nervous around her. She needed to figure out what was itching under her skin.

"Really?" Cece said, sounding like a proper counselor now.

"Mmm," the Wraith hummed in agreement.

The golden eyed villain suddenly leaned forward, taking her back off of the metal seat as far as she could stretch. She craned her neck to the side to stare at the counselor.

"Now tell me, Ms. Counselor, what do you hope to achieve out of this little interrogation of yours?"

Aizawa's eyes widened at her question, and so did Cece's.

But her answer was as quick and as fluid as water. There was nothing stopping Cece from spilling the truth to the villain.

"We want to know about the League and their future plans. The heroes only managed to imprison a handful of you... but you know about the future of the League. You have information for us. You're useful."

The Wraith snickered. "Oh, dear, I'm always useful."

Cece passed an uneasy glance to Aizawa who held a similar expression. She wasn't sure if that was a threat or just a narcissistic comment. Probably a mix of both if she had to guess.

But there was something else that struck the heroes off guard. Wraith was able to deduce Cece's quirk in just a few minutes. She knew the strings to pull and how to get the truth out of Cece. It was impossible to guess how. But Cece could admit that the villain was undeniably smart.

"You're kinda cocky, huh?" Cece murmured, mostly to herself, as she scribbled something on her clipboard.

"Should I have reason not to be?" Wraith said.

Cece imagined that if the villain wasn't strapped to the chair, she'd probably cross one leg over the other and flaunt her features in some pose. She raised an eyebrow at Wraith.

"Yes. You do."

"Oh? Enlighten me, Counselor, if you will." The Wraith bowed her head to her mockingly.

Cece frowned, putting her pen down on her clipboard. She interlocked her fingers and hooked her hands around her knee, sitting up as straight as a board. A smirk drew at the corners of her lips.

"You have mommy issues and a deep rooted disconnection from the world around you. You have a superiority complex and hold the belief that you can do no wrong—which is terribly incorrect. The world has done you no good so you'll do every wrongdoing you can possibly think of to spite the people that hurt you in your childhood."

The Wraith tilted her head to the side. The smirk that was hidden behind her mask had disappeared.

Aizawa scoffed from behind the counselor, impressed. Cece smiled. "Am I close yet?"

There was silence for a few moments, but not long. Once again, the Wraith laughed. She laughed to the point where she could hardly breathe. She hunched forward and coughed like a smoker before taking a shaky breath in again and chuckled until she was finished.

Cece's smile dipped back down into a frown. What the hell...?

"C'mon! That's rudimentary! Can't you give me something I don't know?"

"So you admit you have insecurities?"

"I admit that I owe the world nothing. In fact, they should be thanking me."

"Thanking you?" Cece spat back.

"Without villains, the heroes have nothing. I bring fear into the equation. Fear is what makes heroes powerful. And I'm only the way I am because of the people I tore down in my past..."

Cece balled her hands into fists in her lap. The blinding light which the truth shed did nothing to affect the Wraith. It didn't even blind her. In fact, it empowered her.

Cece didn't fear the villain. But she couldn't understand how the Wraith could be so consumed by her own beliefs. The Wraith didn't care about the broken past that lead her down this path... rather, she accepted it. She knew about it and she didn't care. She didn't give a damn about what Cece had to say.

At some point or another, the Wraith was an average person just like Cece was. The Wraith was a bad person, but she wasn't born evil. What happened to her...?

"Go ahead," the Wraith hissed to Cece, her golden eyes piercing and glowing with power. "Thank me."

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In case you didn't know, Cece — aka Ms. Counselor — belongs to morallygreyismyfavoritecolor on TikTok and Instagram!!! I absolutely adore her character so if you haven't seen her please check her out on her platforms! ❤️

This is of course dedicated to @bIxssm ! Love you bubba!  ❤️

The lovely cover is made by her! Please, if you haven't already, follow her and check out her brilliant works! :D