Corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) is a peptide hormone and neurotransmitter involved in the stress response.
ZZZ
"Seems like a slow day today, huh?" Akane sighed, leaning back in her chair to relax her brain from the numbing paperwork.
"Better knock on wood before the gnome hears you." Kagari snickered, earning a smack on the head from Kunizuka.
"Gnome?" the young Inspector was at a loss.
"I guess you have met her yet." Tomomi spoke with his croaky voice, yet he smiled kindly. "Ringo Nezumi is an Enforcer that works under Shion, per se. She specializes in biology and at times works as a coroner."
Ginoza continued to click away on his tablet, sighing at the thought of the short woman disrupting the peace of the office. "She tends to hide away when things get busy but now that the day is slow…"
"She'll come looking for me," groaned Kagari, hanging his head.
Down the hall, people moved out of the way of the tiny woman making her way up from the labs. The white lab coat she wore nearly touched the floor and the sleeves had to be rolled up to the elbows so they didn't cover her hands. Long tangled bits of golden hair cascaded down her back, twisting at the backs of her knees. Within a second of entering the office her expression turned from annoyed to bored as she let herself in.
Akane was startled at the sudden appearance of a woman she had never seen around the building before. This must have been the girl Tomomi had told her about. The blond seemed extremely child-like in her mannerisms as well as with her looks. Dull green eyes scanned the office before landing on Akane's own milky brown orbs.
"Ringo, where are your shoes?" Kagari's voice broke their meted stare.
Ringo glanced down at her feet and wiggled her toes, covered by mismatched socks. "I don't know… maybe they ran away?"
While the rest of the office seemed to go right back to work, Akane couldn't take her eyes off the strange girl. Tomomi, kind hearted as usual, handed the blond a lollipop and smiled as the child-like girl opened it. For most of the afternoon, Ringo sat on Kagari's lap and watched him play games. It was odd to see him so gentle with her, his voice barely above a mumble.
After a while Shion had sent a message to Kagari informing him that Ringo was needed. He carried her away on his back, the girl's blank eyes glancing back at Akane one last time. Akane shivered and tried to clear her head; she had to have just been overthinking, Ringo must have been harmless. She was just blowing things out of proportion. Right?
"Don't let her appearance fool you," Shinya warned, folding his hands behind his head and flicking his grey eyes to the young woman. "Her reading is six-hundred-and-sixty-six exactly. The only reason she isn't dead is because that brain of hers; she's more useful alive."
"She seems really attached to Kagari. Is there a reason for that?" Akane pondered, remembering how the red head had tenderly played with Ringo.
"Childhood friends of sorts, I guess you could say." Tomoni replied, turning towards the door only to watch Ringo dart past it in nothing but her underwear. Kagari frantically hurried after her, collecting her clothes as he went.
ZZZ
"Are you sure this is a good idea? I mean, she's bonkers." Kagari collapsed onto the couch in Shion's lab, kneading the heels of his hands into his eye sockets.
"Why not? She hasn't left the building in three years; the outdoors should be good for her." Shion blew out a cloud of grey smoke. "Besides, if your there she'll behave."
"I need her for this case, after all she was the one that dissected the bodies three years ago." Ginzo pushed up his glasses, giving the final word.
Kagari sighed and glanced over to where Ringo was busy stuffing a red backpack with all kinds of bits and bobs she really didn't need. It had been a while since she had been out and about, he knew she'd be nervous about it, causing her brain to become more scattered than usual. Her Hue tended to darken whenever she left the building, showing that the outside world caused her stress and anxiety; the same reasons why she had been locked away in the first place.
Ringo's tiny hand held onto his pinky as they walked out to the car. They paused at the threshold, her grip tightening slightly before she took that step. Kagari met her eyes, finding them full of fear and worry. When her tiny voice asked if they'd hurt her, he felt his blood boil.
He'd been there when Ringo was dragged into the facility for treatment, her eyes dull from the drugs and her tiny feet dragging behind her as they hauled her into the cell beside his. Like him, she'd failed the Psycho-Pass and fought back against the men who had brought her there and the doctors that had tried to treat her. In the outside world people had treated her like a sick animal. He knew she'd only been scared and lonely, it was the treatment that made her go completely insane, if she hadn't been already.
"No one will hurt you, I promise." He told her with a bright smile.
When they reached the park, Ringo let go of his hand and made a bee-line for the grotesque statue where the fountain once stood. She circled it, poked it, jotted down notes, and circled it again.
"Ringo's brain works faster than the robots." Tomomi told Akane. "She can pick it apart with just her eyes and tell you how it happened."
"Is that why she doesn't leave often?" Akane asked as Ringo started to head their way again.
"Only Shion can authorize whether she leaves or not." Ginzo tapped away on his watch. "Which is not often. What did you find?"
Ringo blinked and flipped through her notes. "She was dead when her body was cut up, that much I can tell. This is different from the case three years ago, or at least with the previous Enforcer, where the body was hacked apart while he was alive."
The blond flicked past a few pages, licking her fingers as she went. "The whole crime took place somewhere else before being moved here. Like with the past case, however…"
"This is much flashier." Shinya finished for her, staring off at the young girl's butchered body.
Ringo hummed in agreement and continued to ramble on about what she had found while looking at the statue. Kagari stuffed a hand in his pocket and began to count off on his fingers, Akane watching him in wonder.
"Three… two… one…"
Her moment of sanity passed and the blond stood frozen before her peers, clutching the notepad to her chest. Bright, serious eyes turned wide and paranoid within seconds. Akane eyed her warily as she stepped closer to her, cocking her head to the side and meeting her eyes.
"Do the trees talk to you, too?"
Akane was at a loss for words, only managing to back up a few steps. Kagari stepped between them and tried to calm Ringo down and herd her towards the car. Instead of listening to him, she threw her notebook in the air and ran towards the grass where she quickly began to dig a hole with her bare hands.
"The worms need me!" she cried, Kagari's arms tight around her torso, pulling her up off the ground. "I'm their Queen! Unhand me!"