PSYCHO-PASS: Systemic
by: Shadow Chaser
Summary:
The Season of Hell almost brought down the Sibyl System. Makishima Shougo's clever plan of technological warfare and bio-terrorism nearly brought it down. Kirito Kamui's forced judgment of the system purged those the System thought had too high of coefficients in a system of asymptomatic criminals. But the System survived and thrived, expanding first to SEAUn and eyeing the rest of the world. The Sibyl System lives...until it becomes obsolete. The precursor to the downfall of the Sibyl System and the aftermath.
Notes:
All Japanese-related names will be written in traditional format (last name first, first name). All characters unless they are from other countries will be using the Japanese honorific format.
Story:
Chapter 1 - Precursor I
Crime coefficient is over 189. Paralyzer safety will be released. Please aim carefully-
Error- Error-
Crime coefficient is under 60. Safety will be locked-
Error- Error- Error-
Ginoza Nobuchika gritted his teeth in frustration for what seemed to be the umpteenth time that night since he had chased the latent criminal named Kusakabe Takeshi.
"What the hell is up with the Dominators, Inspector?!" Masaoka shouted across the catwalk on the other side of Kusakabe as the two of them trapped the latent criminal in place by blocking either exit. There was a risk of accidentally shooting his Enforcer if Kusakabe managed to dodge the first shot from the Dominator by leaning one way or the other on the narrow platform. But it had been the most effective plan since the criminal had led them into the rat maze of an abandoned chemical factory.
"We're on our way," Yayoi's cool and calm voice echoed in his communicator and while Ginoza was relieved by the reassurance that the rest of his team was coming, it was still frustrating that they could not do anything for the moment. Especially with Kusakabe pointing his gun back and forth between the two of them.
Normally the Dominator would activate and either he or Masaoka would be able to disable Kusakabe with a shot, his crime coefficient not high enough to warrant Sybil's decision to outright kill the latent criminal. But the Dominator was-
Crime coefficient is over 197. Paralyzer safety will be released. Please aim-
Error- Error- Error-
Crime coefficient is under 54. Safety will be locked-
Error- Error-
Crime coefficient is over 201. Paralyzer safety will be rele-
Error-
The targeting recticle in his biometrics was steady on Kusakabe, but the targeting hue kept dimming to blue, then red, and back to blue and so forth every second or so. Just as the trigger would be released, it would lock once more and Ginoza had no idea what the hell was happening with the Dominator. Judging by Masaoka's words, the same thing must have been happening with his Enforcer's Dominator. At this rate, neither of them was able to get a shot off and it looked like Kusakabe was starting to realize it as the insane smile that lit up his face pulled wider.
"What's the matter detectives? Suddenly realize you can't fire?" he taunted and Ginoza narrowed his eyes.
It was as if the man knew what the Dominators did and what they read in order to activate or deactivate. No one outside of the MWPSB knew about Dominators. They were Sibyl's eyes and they were Sibyl itself. The information presented to the public about the Criminal Investigation Division of the Public Safety Bureau was limited and mostly involved keeping the public safe from latent criminals. Information about Inspectors was published with prestige while Enforcers were known to be the hunting dogs of the PSB. The 'guns' they carried were given no information at all except to let the public know that they were there to keep the peace.
Kusakabe's words told him another story. Here was a man who either had guessed correctly about the Dominators' purpose, or actually knew what they were used for and how they operated. He was really hoping for the former rather than the latter because it meant so many things that he did not really want to think about – his crime coefficient not really needing the spike it had taken in the last few months not withstanding – nor contemplate ever putting in a report to Chief Kasei.
"Put the gun down Kusakabe, we don't want to kill you," he said in a calm voice, a part of him mildly surprised that he could keep his voice so steady in light of such a dangerous situation.
On the other side of Kusakabe, he could make out the flickering of lights across Masaoka's Dominator, flickering blue to red to blue, and back to red again. Still no bead on the latent criminal. He had been hoping that the Enforcer's Dominator was not malfunctioning like his, that he would have the better shot since the Dominator would lock if it even targeted him – whereas he had a chance of hitting Masaoka with his own if he fired. It wasn't that he did not care if he hit his Enforcer with his Dominator; it was just convenience he reasoned to himself.
Crime coefficient is over 210. Paralyzer safety will be released. Please aim carefully and bring-
Error-
Crime coefficient is under 51. Paralyzer safety will be locked-
Error- Error-
"Don't come any closer!" Kusakabe suddenly shouted and Ginoza shook his head slightly at Masaoka's suddenly step forward, telling the older Enforcer to back off. They did not need to provoke the latent criminal into shooting either one of them with his gun. He could hear slight rasp of breath echoing in the large chamber from Kusakabe, the vats of unused chemicals still burbling even as the power was all but out in this abandoned factory. The chemicals had a sour plastic-like smell, but all of that was background noise as he kept his focus on Kusakabe.
He knew it had only been a few seconds, maybe less than a minute, but it felt like hours since Yayoi had radioed in that she and the other Enforcer with her were on their way. Maybe they would have better luck with their Dominators as his and Masaoka's seemed to be malfunctioning, but Ginoza did not hold out much hope. Their only option now was to hold the metaphoric line until Yayoi and the other Enforcer showed up. Ginoza refused to call him by his name...not after what had happened a few months ago. It was still too raw, cut too deeply, and hurt too much. They could not let Kusakabe escape back into the rat maze of the chemical factory. Chasing after him and pinning him here on the catwalks above the chemical vats had been a feat of itself – careful planning by Masaoka to at least trap him after Team 2 had failed to corner him in their first attempt to subdue Kusakabe.
The latent criminal's smile grew just a bit wider as he shook his head, waving his gun back and forth across the catwalk. "You really think I'm going to throw this gun away-"
Ginoza danced back a step at the sudden ping of a bullet striking near his foot, momentarily surprised before barely dodging the sudden strike of an arching kick to his face. Shit, this was not what he needed as he scrambled back, his breath leaving him in the sudden jab to his stomach and nearly folding him onto one of the guardrails. He caught the railing only to cry out in surprise at the flare of pain as Kusakabe smashed gun against his free hand, nearly crushing the bones against the unyielding metal of the guardrail.
He reacted by jabbing his useless Dominator into Kusakabe's stomach, trying to press the trigger, receiving error messages that flashed across his eye HUD- Stars exploded across his vision as he took a vicious backhand across his face, toppling him off balance as he fell across the guardrail and onto the cold metal grated catwalk, pain exploding across his head and jaw. He felt his glasses dig into the side of his face, the thin metal breaking and cutting a sharp line into his cheek. He blearily looked up to see Kusakabe smile light up like fireworks across his face and belatedly realized that the hand that had held the gun was now pointed at his face-
"Please give my regards, Inspector-"
Maybe it was the years of working with him, or maybe it was because his survival instinct was honed by his years on the force, but whatever it was, he reacted on pure instinct. He brought up his useless Dominator and clubbed the man's hand. Almost at the same time, he heard the loud bang of the gun firing, and the sharp ping that nearly deafened his ear as it landed dangerously close to his head. Not even a split second later, the darkened shape of Kougami landed on top of Kusakabe from above; having flung himself off of a higher catwalk above them.
Ginoza scrabbled back as best as he could as his Enforcer rolled Kusakabe's body further away, back towards Masaoka. It was a flurry of arm and leg movements as the two fought and Ginoza caught a glint of something flying away, Kusakabe's gun, before there was a reverberating thump of bodies hitting the grates across the floor. He saw Kougami curled around Kusakabe, pinning him with an arm pulled back to the point of breaking while his other arm held the man's neck in an armbar.
Kusakabe thrashed weakly as he rapidly lost consciousness and fell limp a few seconds later. The sudden sound of breath surprised Ginoza as he realized he had been holding it since his Enforcer's flashy arrival.
"Clear!" Yayoi's voice called out from above and Ginoza looked up from where he was sitting to see her peer down from above, her Dominator a glowing blue as she pointed it up, down, and to the side for any other threats.
It was also then that he realized he was still on the ground and that someone was casting a shadow next to him. It was Masaoka. Ginoza blinked once at the hand that had been offered to help him up and resolutely ignored it. He pushed himself to his feet, adjusting his glasses only to wince a little at the sharp metal cutting into his cheek and pulled the battered remnants off of his face. He glared at it before shoving it into his blue PSB jacket. He was going to need another one and that in of itself annoyed him. Ginoza let out another quiet breath, forcing himself to be calm, to clear away all thoughts of annoyance with each steady breath. He holstered his Dominator and brought out his handcuffs and approached his Enforcer and the unconscious Kusakabe. He did not need his crime coefficient to rise with the stupid stunt his Enforcer had pulled even though a vicious small voice in his head told him that Kougami had saved his life.
"You okay?" Kougami asked with a feral grin as he knelt down beside Kusakabe and handcuffed him. He ignored Kougami's question as he made to push his glasses up before realizing that he had put them in his pocket and instead, stood back up.
"Your recklessness is unbecoming of your conduct as an Enforcer," he said coolly, not looking at his former partner as he brought up his communicator and tapped out a few commands to summon drones to the area to take Kusakabe away. "Please keep that in mind as you conduct future operations under my command. I will not hesitate to shoot you if you decide to pull a stunt like this again."
He could sense Kougami's startled surprise, the years spent with him as friends then partners honed to a fine point. At the same time, he knew that the surprise was swiftly buried under the layers and layers of repressed guilt for what had happened months before. Ginoza could not help the quick sense of vicious pleasure that filled him at putting Kougami- no, at putting his newest Enforcer in his place. Kougami was a latent criminal, a dredge of society and it would do him good to know that it was his fault for what had happened to him to make him be demoted from Inspector to Enforcer. And it would show him that he was very lucky that Ginoza decided to take him on as an Enforcer instead of letting him rot forever in the institution.
"Masaoka, help our newest Enforcer with loading Kusakabe's body for transport when the drones arrive. Yayoi, you're with me," he could feel Masaoka's concerned eyes on him and brushed past him before the tapping of footsteps above told him that Yayoi was running to meet him on his floor.
As he walked back out to the entrance of the facility, Yayoi shadowing him like a silent sentinel, Ginoza pulled out his Dominator and stared at it. The blue hues of activation told him that it was working and he casually pointed it at Yayoi's leg as he stopped for a moment. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw her stare at him with a mild look on her face. All Enforcers always had that look, one that always seemed to stab him deep because deep down he knew that they were like him, human instead of latent criminals that the Sibyl System had made them out to be. But he had long brushed it aside, ever since his father had abandoned him and his mother when he was nine by becoming a latent criminal, and ignored her look. The Enforcers were used to it, he knew that and they knew that.
Enforcer crime coefficient is 154. Enforce at will target. Paralyzer safety will be released. Please aim carefully and pull the trigger.
He moved his Dominator away and stared at it, turning it in his hand as he frowned. It was clearly working now, Yayoi's crime coefficient registering with all of the proper notifications and Sibyl System message that droned in his head. The Dominator had stayed blue the whole time, and he could feel the slight give of the trigger that indicated if he pressed it, it would shoot a Paralyzer into Yayoi to render her unconscious.
So then why had it reacted the way it had reacted to Kusakabe when they were trying to subdue him? Nothing about the case made any sense except for the fact that the cymatic scanners had picked him up randomly and even then, some of the other cymatic scanners had registered his hue as utterly clear. It was almost as if Kozaburou Touma was somehow taunting them in a manner, but Kusakabe had literally no connections to the main suspect of the currently unsolved Specimen Case. In fact, they had only registered the oddity of Kusakabe Takeshi's case when Shion had been monitoring the area stress levels after they had found Sasayama's body. They had been wondering if Kozaburou was going to strike again in the surrounding areas since they had found the other plastinated bodies.
But the Specimen Case had been given to Division 2 after Sasayama's death in a totally unrelated case that turned out to be connected to Kozaburou and the disastrous result of Kougami's actions and subsequent demotion. That had been one conversation he had dreaded with Chief Kasei and was also probably one of the worst dressing downs he ever had in his whole career at the PSB. According to Chief Kasei, the CID had been viewed with some mistrust after what had happened by the others at the Ministry of Welfare and it had taken a lot of favors for her to make the rumors completely disappear. He had thought he would have been demoted to a junior Inspector role or even reassigned to a different division of the PSB, but somehow had managed to salvage whatever was left of his career and continue on.
The Kusakabe case was supposed to be the first step back in the right direction and it had ended up with his and Masaoka's Dominators malfunctioning; along with Kougami's hair-brained plan to subdue Kusakabe by jumping at him from above.
"Yayoi, requisition the weapons division and request a priority diagnostic of all our Dominators for functionality purposes. We can't have this happening again," Ginoza ordered as he holstered his Dominator once more and stepped out, his mind beginning to compose what was going to be a very long report on what was supposed to be a simple case. He was also not blind to know that Kougami had only pulled that stunt because his and Yayoi's Dominators also did not work against Kusakabe when they had arrived above him and Masaoka.
He rubbed his nose, feeling a little off from the familiar perch of his glasses and gritted his teeth together in annoyance. Besides that, he needed to set a reminder to purchase a new set of frames, probably ones a little sturdier or maybe not completely made out of metal frames. Just what the hell happened to his Dominator to make it act like that?
"Kusakabe Takeshi will no longer be a problem, Ginoza-san," Chief Kasei stared at him with a steely look in her dark eyes as she absently played with the Rubik's Cube she had in between her hands. The whirl and flash of colors was a little mesmerizing and a bit distracting, but Ginoza was long used to it and so ignored it.
"He's been institutionalized?" Ginoza wondered why just mere hours after he had submitted his report to Chief Kasei he would be summoned to her office. At the same time, he sincerely hoped that she was not going to ream him out again, not so close after the Specimen Case.
"Executed," Kasei replied bluntly and Ginoza blinked.
"But- His crime coefficient..."
"He was using a masking chip that one of our self-defense force contracts had developed in recent months. It was the only one in existence and he stole it before murdering his boss and several of his colleagues," the Chief replied, her slim fingers deftly moving the cube with faint twitches here and there. "However, since it was a prototype, there were issues with it and it was why your Dominators were registering his crime coefficient at varying levels."
"I see," a very small minuscule part of him marveled at the convenience of it, but it was ruthlessly chased off by the more practical side of it. It made sense. The self-defense force was always making sure that there were ways to safeguard against illegal aliens that wanted to harm the Sibyl System and thus sometimes produced cutting edge technology that would be deadly if it fell into the wrong hands. More often than not, he suspected it was a high stress job that had a lot of its workers' psycho-passes rise and fall as they sought ways to relieve their stress.
"This was his true crime coefficient," Kasei reached over to one of her screens and flicked an image towards him. Ginoza suppressed the urge to grimace as he stared with an umoving gaze at the image of Kusakabe's body in what was clearly open brain surgery that also involved the cervical part of his spine. He supposed that they were probably pulling out whatever chip he had embedded into his brain. He looked at the number registered and saw that it was at least 323. The Dominator would have instantly eliminated him if it had gotten past whatever had been hindering it.
"You noted in your report that his crime coefficient had been steadily rising and falling back down each time you pointed your Dominator at him. If things had not taken a turn, you would have had your chance to eliminate him," Kasei concluded and Ginoza could not help the small well of shame that filled him. The Chief was right...he should have been more careful and not so hasty in chasing down Kusakabe and trapping him with just himself and Masaoka. It was Masaoka's fault for being so hasty...damn him.
"I will strive to ensure that my Enforcers follow all of my orders in the future," there was no other reply as Ginoza bowed.
"See to it, Ginoza-san. Especially since your former partner seems to not care that he is now a latent criminal and acts like he is still an Inspector," Kasei's voice was calm and collected, but Ginoza could not help but flinch a little at her words. It was on him now...and he needed to make sure that Kasei knew that he could still be relied upon, could still function perfectly as an exemplary Inspector after what had happened.
He deepened his bow a little more before leaving, a little more than relieved that it was all Kasei wanted to talk to him about. Next thing on his list was to head back to his apartment, walk Dime to both relieve some of the stress of meeting Chief Kasei and to let his Siberian husky have some fresh air, and pick up his new set of recommended frames from the obstetrician. He would deal with his Enforcers and their behavior tomorrow.
But as the elevator took him back down to the Division 1 office, he could not help but think that there was something he had missed about the whole case...something that was vital.
Within the hive mind of asymptomatic criminals known as the Sibyl System, they welcomed their newest member, Kusakabe Takeshi. He was one of the first ones that they had a real interest in, a so-called 'creation' of the Togane Foundation as he melded with them. There was the warm sense of pride and motherly love that could only exist in such psychosis of sociopaths, but then again Togane Misako loved all of her creations, her experiments. But even though there was a hive mind of sorts, a melding of consciousness that gave them their sentience and omnipotence, at least one mind dissented and watched with a coldness of suspicion. Kozaburou Touma did not consider Kusakabe Takeshi one of them, an asymptomatic criminal. To him, Kusakabe Takeshi was trouble.
He was the snake in the Garden of Eden.