"What is your name? What is your rank? Where will the Exiles strike next?"
Hitomi was relieved. The gauls here hadn't seen the broadcasts she made in the Leeds system, and apparently the removal of her rank insignia had worked. Of course it would not fool them for ever, but for now, they would put her into the barracks. After hitting her a bit, of course.
"I won't repeat myself. Answer. My. Question."
She didn't. And he did repeat himself. Multiple times, actually.
She didn't count the bruises she received. She didn't see daylight, or anything, for a long time now. How long? No clue.
"Why don't you just tell them?"
Her cellmate. A young outcast pilot. She didn't know his name, he didn't know hers. Or was it her own consciousness that asked? She didn't know.
She started counting times the guard got her to the Inquiring. She assumed that they did that either every day or twice a day.
"Either I am here for 5 or 10 days now"
That was her own voice. She talked to herself now? Since when?
Daylight. She saw Daylight. The sun rising above Mount Kuroasawa. Her mother touching her cheek gently.
"You can come home now, dear. You don't have to suffer anymore. Just come home. Home to..."
"Hon... Honshu. I can return to Honshu, Okasan?"
"Of course! The war is over! You did well! I'm proud of you!"
Hitomi was baffled. Her mother. Accepting the course she took. Finally, she accepted her autono... Wait. That can't be true.
The sun vanished and started becoming a surgical light. Around her, every inch of the cold room looked blank, without any orientation point. She could as well sit in a ball.
Everything turned upside down. Her head hurt.
Drugs! They had drugged her! Bastards! She was sure not to have told anything about secret operations, but she'd need to check in with Nagasaki's doctor upon her return.
Her return?
Ridiculous. No way out here.
Back into the cell. It's empty. So she did talk to herself.
"They won't break me. For every evil I have to endure, there will be an equal of good. The balance will return. One day."