Judge Katsumi Yamamoto cut the string that was tied neatly around the package sitting on her coffee table. The cardboard box had holes punched in the top, so that its contents could be transported safely without fear of suffocation. She opened the top of the box, folding the flaps outward.

Waiting inside the box were two shrunken men. They had been convicted the day before of robbing a bank. Luckily for them, no one was hurt during the robbery. Normally they would be sent to a detention facility where they would be incarcerated, and interrogated if necessary. However, due to the overburdened state of both the courts and the prisons, Judge Yamamoto had sentenced them to temporary probation under the care of a court-appointed guardian. Little did the two men know they would be seeing their judge again so soon.

Katsumi reached down her side, pulling one of her slippers off. "I want both of you to think very carefully about the question I'm going to ask you. I'm sure you already know what I want to hear." She looked directly at the small men cowering in a corner of the box. "I don't expect you to answer right now. But when I do ask, you'll only have one opportunity to answer. I won't repeat myself."

"We ain't telling you nothing!" they both declared in unison.

"For your sakes, I hope that isn't true. I'm sure you'll change your minds."

She held her thong slipper next to the box. It was much like an ordinary flip flop, only it was a house slipper made entirely of soft cushy fabric, just like the ones she had seen women wearing before in day spas. Hers had one unique improvement, a small zipper sewn into the side of the house shoe. It was her own design. She had put it there herself, and it wasn't bad work if she said so herself.

Judge Yamamoto pulled the zipper open, giving her access to the insides of the slipper. She pinched one of the small men, lifting him from the box. Both of the men were young and strong, full of contempt for the law and authority figures in general. That was good. She preferred them that way. It would be so satisfying to break their spirits. Katsumi tucked him inside her house shoe and zipped it shut. It happened so fast, she wasn't sure the little man understood what was happening. Not that it mattered, he would figure it out soon enough.

"It's hard to breathe in here!"

"Oh yeah? You think so? Just wait until I put it back on my foot!"

She knew from past experience they would be able to breathe well enough. It wasn't her first time interrogating criminals. These two chuckleheads would survive like all the rest. They wouldn't be comfortable, but they'd live.

She removed her other slipper from her right foot, opening its zipper. Then she grabbed the second bank robber, shoving him deep into the stuffing inside the slipper. With a quick zip, he was also trapped. Katsumi took a moment to admire her handiwork. Her system was damn near perfect. It hadn't failed yet. She always got the information she needed. And she never had to ask more than once. They ALWAYS talked.

"I have to go to work fellas. The crime never seems to stop in this city. Pity you guys can't take a day off once in a while." She placed her slippers side by side on the floor near her front door, where they would be waiting for her when she returned home from work. Katsumi slid her bare feet into the pair of black pumps discarded at the door the night before.

"Don't go anywhere boys." She giggled to herself as she picked up her attaché case and walked out of her studio apartment.