Abnormality

Igawa was walking down the corridor with a bag of tasty chips, when he noticed one of the doors was slightly ajar. Once again his indifference failed him in passing by the bedroom. After peeking inside, it revealed his team-mate sitting on his bed, propped against the wall with a frown on his face. Mamoru didn't have his sunglasses on and blinked away some long strands of hair.

"Igawa," he called out, having correctly guessed it from merely hearing the footsteps. "I need a haircut."

His partner opened the door, shuffled in and took a good look at the bangs nearly covering his face. Any longer and it would be inconvenient for the upcoming jobs. However, Mamoru obviously was unable to cut his own hair properly and this required assistance that was not from Igawa. The first time he had tried, Mamoru had complained so much about the uneven hairline. For goodness' sake, this guy can't even see! Igawa had grumbled that mentally to himself.

"Uh yeah, looks like you do need one. Shall I call Haruka for you?"

The other shook his head.

"No, not now."

Igawa raised an eyebrow. Was there something bothering him?

"Okay... So whatcha thinking 'bout?" he said, attempting to probe out an answer, but instead was on the receiving end of a glare. "..oh, oh, guess I should not be asking...?"

Mamoru shook his head. "No, it's just that..."

Then he heaved a sigh, while scratching his temple. Something is bothering him, Igawa thought. What could it be?

"Well, lemme guess... Is it about Haruka?"

In reaction he frowned and then rolled his eyes. Ohohoho!

"That girl ain't right."

Igawa returned to shut the door, left the bag of chips on the small table, then went to sit cross-legged on the floor with his hands placed on his knees.

"As a fellow ally of justice I am here to listen to your concerns," he proclaimed.

Mamoru visibly cringed. Oh come on.

"I mean what's the trouble."

"She's trying too hard," he finally said.

Igawa recalled this morning's incident. Somehow Haruka escaped their care for a moment and remained away the entire night. Though not without leaving a note on the kitchen counter. She had errands to do alone and promised to come back safely. Although Igawa felt quite adamant about keeping the girl safe and sound, especially when the world's greatest bounty hunters were on her heels, the swordsman simply shrugged it off and told him not to fret when she had her precognition on her side. Mamoru trusted her to know what she was doing. The technician followed his advice and went to bed at the usual time after spending some hours frantically coding self-described 'awesome stuff'.

The next thing Igawa knew he had heard noises from the garage and found himself drooling on his laptop. The 'awesome stuff' had been recoded into indecipherable mumbo jumbo overnight. Although he was far more concerned at the quantity of harmless drool that had possibly entered the keyboard, and therefore went to the sink to wash it off. Suddenly Igawa had seen Haruka entering the room with her head hanging low. He greeted, but a half-awake Igawa had barely noticed Mamoru in the room drinking coffee. It was obvious that Haruka saw the swordsman first.

Then it happened.

Mamoru could not evade the hug and for several moments proceeded to look like as if he had never expected it to happen to him. At that point Igawa was suddenly aware of an increasing urge to drink coffee.

Returning to the present, Igawa replied with, "I see."

"Acting like a housewife. She's a kid..." Mamoru said with a groan.

That's the problem?

"But it's nice, isn't? Great food, clean house and random hugs. She's taking good care of you, I mean, us," Igawa quickly corrected himself when Mamoru called him an idiot.

"That's not it," the other said.

"Then what's the problem?"

"It's as if she's..."

This was the first time he had seen Mamoru attempting to say something, and apparently struggling to find the right words.

"As if she wants it."

The two fell silent at those words. Oh boy, here it comes, Igawa thought and scratched the back of his head nervously. For the sake of not becoming torture material for Sierra, he quickly searched for a way to get around the topic.

"...and she's not supposed to," Mamoru added, "It's abnormal."

"Well~ Maybe she's just the type who likes to do that kind of stuff. Maybe she doesn't want to eat my gross food," Igawa layered that bit with sarcasm, "And she probably hates dirty houses. It's not like the rest of us are actually doing anything of that sort. Look at Dai or Juliet. They're just there. Doing nothing in particular about the household."

"So basically you're telling me to shut up and appreciate the things she's doing? Get straight to the point, Igawa. You know exactly what I mean."

His harsh eyes told him everything about what was going on in his mind. Mamoru was talking about a grander scope of events that had, have and would happen between him and Haruka. Igawa knew he considered a companionship between a young girl and a not so innocent swordsman a recipe for disaster. It had only been four months since they met her, and those months felt like an eternity to Igawa. What was it again?

'Until death do us part.'

After some thinking Igawa simply said, "I know, but I think that's for you to figure out."

Mamoru remained silent, until he finally smiled a little.

"I don't mind it," he said with a low voice.

Igawa wasn't exactly sure what he meant by it, and for his own safety he chose not the question his friend any further. Fortunately he found a way of evading the topic entirely.

"You mean the bowl cut?"

Author's note

Oh hey, so what did you think of that? This was inspired by a certain chapter that has yet to be scanlated, but the project unfortunately seems pretty dead now. D:

That aside, I want to recommend the Psycho-Pass anime to the UDDUP fans. It's a new cyberpunk police series produced by Production I.G. It's about crime fighting, has gory action and the world building reeks of 1984 by George Orwell. There are no swords (so far), but the guns are awesome.

I also keep spotting similarities between the main characters Shinya and Akane, and Mamoru and Haruka: he's a (latent) criminal and she's the one who needs to prevent him from making the wrong decisions. He's a sweet bastard and she's innocent, but talented. He's 28 and she's 19. They're cute too.