Summary: AU in which no one dies. Division One is getting a new Enforcer, and Kagari cannot wait.
a/n: how about a psycho pass au where everyone is alive and kagari and hinakawa get to meet each other?
Psycho Pass Secret Santa written for Delphi on tumblr
"We," Nobuchika Ginoza announced, "are going to add another Enforcer to our ranks."
He was met with dead silence. Beside him, his fellow Inspector Tsunemori wore a carefully neutral expression, but his Enforcers weren't as professional. Kogami stared at him as if he'd gone insane, blue eyes widened. Yayoi, the ever sensible one, blinked twice before pursing her lips as she regarded him with a worried gaze. At the far end of the office, Masaoka snorted without much tact before turning back to his coffee.
Kagari let out a loud whoop and sprung to his feet in excitement. "Inspector!" he yelled, "Are you serious?"
Secretly offended, Gino had to remind himself to play it cool. "Why would I lie to you?" he scoffed, raising an eyebrow.
But his remarks were lost in the storm of noise that had suddenly kicked up. Ignoring his Inspector, Kagari had sprinted forward and caught Tsunemori by the arm, dragging her into the huddle of Enforcers that had quite suddenly formed. A storm of noise whipped up almost immediately, and even Kogami had turned his back on Gino in favor of listening to the chatter.
Gino could only stare in shock as Kagari pelted Tsunemori with question after question, Masaoka injecting his own comment every so often. With a slightly flustered yet highly amused look dancing on her face, Gino saw that the Inspector was doing her best to answer all the inquiries Kagari flung at her, although most of the answers composed of "I'm not sure", or "I don't know".
Finally, Kogami broke his smoky silence and informed the group, "His name is Hinakawa Sho."
Which of course brought up another gust of chatter-and Kagari was in the center of it all, having pulled away from Tsunemori to spin around excitedly.
"The name even sounds cool!" Kagari cheered. "We might have some fun here for once! Kogami's too dreary, Yayoi isn't entertaining, Masaoka is too old for anything, and we all know Inspector Ginoza-san has a stick-"
He was interrupted by a soft cough from Akane, who wore a soft smile. "We'll be meeting him tomorrow," she said, "So let's get some work done today."
Her comment, met with amicable agreement, calmed Kagari down enough that he stopped dancing and settled down into his swivel chair, still beaming. Jellybeans disappeared into his mouth.
The head Inspector for Division One slowly sunk into his chair, burying his head into his hands. Tomorrow was going to be hell, he thought dryly. Why did I ever agree to this?
-/-
That evening, as Kagari waved goodbye to Inspector Tsunemori and skipped down to the mess hall for dinner, he was struck with a sudden realization. He had absolutely no information on this Sho person, no mental image, no background, hell, he didn't even know the guy existed before today.
Lost in thought, the Enforcer walked right into someone, skull crashing painfully onto what seemed to be another person's head. In mild shock, Kagari yelped, stumbled backwards as he clutched his head.
"Hey!" he yelled, snapping his gaze up to glare at his attacker.
Across from him trembled a curly haired man, red hair falling across his eyes, head bowed and hands pressed together in what looked like a prayer. The stranger looked to be about twenty years old, and Kagari had never seen him around before.
"I'm sorry," the man wailed, shoulders shaking. "I'm really s-sorry, I didn't mean to! I'm sorry, please forgive me!"
Forget twenty, Kagari thought as he rubbed his head. This guy looks like he's fresh out of high school, and had just graduated from being a long-time punching bag too. Stepping back, Kagari scrunched up his nose and thoughtfully rubbed his chin as he observed the person cowering before him.
The boy seemed to take Kagari's silence as a negative thing, and he timidly raised his head, ready to whimper out another apology. Struck with a brilliant idea, Kagari merely waved it away.
"Oh no," he sang, "It's perfectly fine. Although my head is throbbing quite a bit…" he deliberately trailed off his sentence, twisting his face into a pained expression. Seeing this, the curly haired boy began to beg for forgiveness again, but froze when Kagari fixed him with an intense stare.
"I'm sor-"
"HOWEVER," Kagari tactfully cut in, sighing dramatically, "I suppose you could make it up to me."
The boy jumped. "How?" he ventured.
I'm so smart, Kagari thought as he flashed the boy a smile before bolting forward and grasping the other's hands, beaming happily. "You can buy me dinner."
-/-
Ten minutes later, he sat with a steaming bowl of ramen placed in front of him, tangy aroma drifting lazily through the air. Kagari's stomach growled flagrantly, and without another word, he snapped apart his wooden chopsticks and dug in.
Across the table sat the boy who had so kindly treated him to dinner, sitting with his hands nervously laced together and his red hair falling over his eyes. Even as Kagari slurped his noodles, the stranger didn't say a word, instead choosing to determinedly stare at everything and everyone except Kagari.
An awkward silence settled over the two, broken only by Kagari's chewing noises.
Obviously, the Enforcer couldn't stay quiet for long. With a huff, he placed down his chopsticks and leaned forward, eyes narrowed in mock suspicion.
"So," Kagari began, and the boy jerked his head up. "What's your name?" Kagari asked, placing his chin in his hands, and tapping his fingers against his cheek.
The boy meekly lowered his head and mumbled something incoherent.
"What?" Kagari pressed, cupping his free hand over his ear, leaning forward.
This time, the boy still mumbled, tripping over his own words, but loud enough so that Kagari could hear him. Or somewhat hear him.
"-kawa Jo," was all Kagari managed to grasp from the boy's self-introduction. But, being Kagari, he simply waved his doubts aside.
"Kawa Jo! I'm going to call you Jo-san, ok? My name's Kagari Shusei!"
Jo blinked, and he looked as if he was going to say something, but his face twisted slightly and he kept his silence. A frown pulling at his lips, Kagari carefully observed the slight twitches the boy made whenever someone moved, the bags underneath his pale grey eyes.
For a moment, Kagari thought he'd seen a shadow of darkness flicker in Jo's eyes, and he was suddenly reminded of starch white walls and bland meals, of honey sweet words and latent criminal. Underneath the twitchy exterior was something laced with sorrow and pain, and, Kagari thought, not unlike himself.
With a renewed vigor, Kagari snatched up his chopsticks again and gulped down his dinner, dramatically slamming down the bowl when he finished. Jo could only look on in mute shock as the eccentric man slipped out of his seat and grabbed his hands.
"Come on, Jo-san," Kagari declared, "We are going to have fun tonight."
The redhead's weak protests became drowned in Kagari's cheers.
-/-
Jo-san was an odd person, Kagari decided. He'd noticed that Jo-san rarely talked, opting to trudge on in silence and nodding faintly at whatever Kagari told him. Another peculiar thing, Kagari noticed, was that Jo-san periodically flicked his gaze around, as if paranoid, even going so far as to jump nervously at the slightest sound.
But, he didn't seem afraid of Kagari, just apprehensive.
"Are you new here?" Kagari asked as he led his new friend out of the dining hall, into the darker hallways of the MWPSB tower. Jo seemed to freeze up, eyes shifting from side to side like a child pretending he hadn't been the one to break the expensive vase. Pursing his lips, Kagari waited for an answer.
"Y-yes," Jo mumbled, and just like that, Kagari's smile returned.
"Perfect!" Kagari cheered, attracting attention from a pair of Enforcers walking by. "I'm going to show you around."
The next two hours consisted of Kagari dragging an unwilling Jo around the MWPSB tower, first pointing out the common rooms of various uses - from mini bars to game rooms to e-libraries (with books all chosen by Sibyl, of course); there was even a pool, although Enforcers needed permission from Inspectors to enter.
"That," Kagari exclaimed, pointing to the locked door leading to the pool, "was probably one of the best days of my life. One of my Inspectors decided that we all deserved the day off, and so I convinced her to let us use the pool, because I've never been in a pool before, and I really wanted to try it, even though I couldn't swim, and the best part was she agreed, and-"
Kagari's words tumbled out in an excited jumble, and he was rewarded with a slight smile from Jo-san. Beaming, the orange-haired Enforcer pushed his hand into his pocket and pulled out a small jar of jellybeans. Without a word, he unscrewed the cap and in a rare moment of calm, methodically picked out seven of the the little candies, placing them in Jo-san's hand.
"For you," he declared, and then, with an elated bounce, Kagari pushed him away from the pool. The next half an hour was a blur; he pointed out the Enforcer dorms and the doorway that led to the offices, showing Jo his own room in the process.
"Division One is the best," Kagari proudly informed Jo as he let the scanners identify him, "Even if our lead Enforcer is reeaally boring sometimes."
The scanner beeped and the doors to his room slid open smoothly. Whistling a happy tune, Kagari stepped into his room, frowning when he realized that Jo-san wasn't following. Instead, the red haired boy lingered outside the entrance, eyes nervously darting around.
"Come on," he laughed, waving the boy in, "It's not like anything's gonna bite you or whatever."
Seeing that Kagari wasn't going to take no for an answer, Jo stepped into the room with great trepidation, eyes glued to the light blue carpet below him. He yelped when a hand clamped onto his shoulders.
"Whatcha waiting for?" Kagari teased lightly, gently steering the boy inside. Jo teetered for a bit, teeth worrying his lower lip before he allowed himself to be led by Kagari.
Kagari didn't miss the sharp flash of pain that flickered over Jo's face, and his gaze lingered for an extra moment before he turned away.
-/-
As Hinakawa Sho timidly sat on a puffy purple couch, a white Wii remote settled in his palm, the strap looped around his wrist, he wondered how he'd gotten into this mess.
In front of him, Kagari Shusei squatted by the television screen, tongue comically hanging out of his mouth as he messed around with the console. Soon, the screen flickered, turning on to the home screen and Kagari let out a happy whoop.
"Finally," he said, backpedaling until he hit the couch, flopping down onto the cushions, "I swear that thing hates me. Can you believe that it shocked me when I tried to turn it on?"
I don't think electronics are supposed to do that, Hinakawa thought, but Kagari continued on, not waiting for an answer.
"Seriously, Jo-san, I've had that thing since I became an Enforcer, and not once has it actually worked properly. Once, I was in the middle of kicking Sasayama's ass - " Kagari paused and glanced over at Hinakawa, who was trying his best to follow the meandering conversation, and added, "He was another Enforcer here, and I was kicking his ass, and then the game shut down! Just blacked out! Can you believe it?"
My name isn't Jo, Hinakawa thought for the hundredth time, but he nodded anyway, a slight smile tugging at his lips.
A soft ding from the screen made the two glance up, and a list of games Kagari owned appeared on a holoscreen, blue words glowing softly in the air. The holo caught Hinakawa's attention, and he shifted slightly, leaning forward to observe the glowing panel closer. Catching the slight change in his expression, Kagari beamed.
"Impressive, isn't it?" Kagari boasted as Hinakawa inwardly marveled the hologram. It wasn't like the holo was the best one he'd ever seen, but to have one so advanced as an Enforcer…maybe he'd be able to get one too.
Unfortunately, Kagari seemed to think that Hinakawa's amazement was toward the expansive list of games, and as a result, became excited to the point he was bouncing up and down on the couch.
"Let's play this one!" the orange haired Enforcer declared as he looped the Wii strap over his own wrist, fiddling with the controls until he selected a game called "HUNGRY CHICKEN". Before Hinakawa could say anything, a little tune streamed out and the game flashed on.
Somehow, snared by Kagari's endless enthusiasm, Hinakawa found himself slowly immersing into the games and one by one, his worries slipped away. Soon, to his astonishment, the curly haired boy even found himself laughing softly along with his companion.
Judging from Kagari's pleased smile, he'd noticed it too. With a proud tear glistening in his eyes, Kagari had thrown down his controller and wrapped Hinawaka up in a bone crushing hug as he sobbed, "You finally smiled!"
The night dragged on and Hinakawa's happiness rose.
I don't think I've ever felt this happy in a long time, was the thought that quickly flashed through Hinakawa's mind as Kagari let out a wail when his character fell into a pit of lava and the screen flashed GAME OVER.
"That's not fair, Jo-san," Kagari complained as they waited for the game to reset. "How come you can last much longer then I can?"
For a brief moment, Hinakawa thought of the endless nights hunched in front of a glowing screen, fingers flying over keyboards and sliding over countless holos of all types. He'd also played many, many games, both old fashioned and virtual reality, and spending hour after hour familiarizing himself with character designs and game making had been a part of his childhood.
But all Hinakawa answered with was a slight shrug, and Kagari huffed good naturedly, content with the answer he received. In front of them, the holo screen blinked with the words GAME START, and Kagari swung his attention forward.
"I'm going to win this time," he announced, expression settling into one of grim concentration, although his eyes danced with amusement.
We'll see, Hinakawa thought, words almost slipping through his lips.
-/-
Three hours later, Kagari lay draped over the armrest of the couch, whimpering as the screen flashed GAME OVER. Fiddling nervously with his controller, Hinakawa felt his cheeks redden slightly.
"I can't believe you won every single time!" Kagari wailed, dropping his controller in defeat. "I'll have you know that I am the reigning champion of video games among all the Enforcers!"
Kagari sat back up, pouting. "You're good though," he said with a resigned sigh.
I'm sure you are, Hinakawa thought, flushing slightly at the praise. Kagari, having mulled over his defeat, jerked his head up and pointed dramatically at Hinawaka, who yelped and jumped at bit at the sudden movement.
"Jo-san!" Kagari yelled, "I challenge you-"
At that moment, a soft buzz rang throughout the MWSBP tower. Upon hearing it, Kagari's face fell and he grumbled under his breath, swinging off the couch and sauntering to the game console. Catching the puzzled look on Hinakawa's face, Kagari sighed half-heartedly.
"That's the curfew bell," he said, holding his hand out for Hinakawa's remote who placed it in the outstretched hand. "It means Enforcers have ten minutes to get back into their rooms or the doors lock and they'd get written up."
Oh, Hinakawa thought. Another thing he'd have to get used to.
Seeing the dejected tilt of his head, Kagari laughed. "It's all right," he assured the boy, "I'll come find you tomorrow, and then we'll have our rematch. As for today…" his eyes shifted to the clock. "I think you should get home."
He's right, Hinakawa thought, casting his own gaze to the clock hanging high up on the wall. Rising shakily to his feet, he was about to bow before Kagari suddenly appeared in front of him, a box of jellybeans cradled in his palm.
"Here ya go Jo-san," Kagari said cheerfully. "Smile a bit more, won't you?"
Hesitantly accepting the packet of candies, Hinakawa stepped out of the doorway. "T-thank you," he managed to whisper out, bowing deeply to a flabbergasted Kagari.
"No need to thank me," he laughed, "Just get back to your room in time, ok?"
With a final bow, Hinakawa scurried away, clutching the box of jellybeans tightly in his hand.
-/-
Head Inspector Nobuchika Ginoza reclined in his chair, massaging his temples as he daintily sipped at a mug of coffee. Soft sunlight streamed through the open windows, casting pale yellow beams onto the tiled floor.
The day was still early – Tsunemori had only just arrived and was still bustling about her morning routine. Kogami was puffing on a cigarette as he waited for his system to boot up, talking in low tones with Yayoi about the newest case they'd been working on. Masaoka was alternating glances between his watch and the door.
Kagari wasn't even here yet.
"That's odd," Masaoka finally spoke up and he switched from glancing to his watch to glancing to the clock that hung on the far wall. "Where's Kagari? I'd thought he'd be the first one here today."
Gino sighed and placed his coffee on the table. "Well-"
Right on cue, said Enforcer burst into the office, tie crooked and messy orange hair falling into his face.
"I have arrived!" Kagari announced as he bounced to his chair, dumping his daily supply of sweets onto the table.
"We-" Ginoza began, haughtily pushing his glasses up, but Kogami cut through his words.
"You're late, Kagari," the black haired Enforcer stated, snubbing out a smoking cigarette.
In response, Kagari beamed. "I know," he said proudly. "I slept late because I was so excited and also because I met someone really cool yesterday and I was so excited and I overslept and -"
As he rambled on, completely unaware of his surroundings, Akane glanced up and noticed the person hovering by the doors. With a sweet smile, she raised her hand and waved her in; the motion caught everyone's attention - except Kagari's. Still continuing his long winded spiel, Kagari only faltered when he realized that everyone had fallen silent and was staring at something behind him.
Quickly shutting up, Kagari spun his chair around to face the door, and his mouth dropped.
Akane slipped out from behind her desk and strode to the doorway. "Welcome to Division One," she said. Turning around to face her co-workers, she continued, "Everyone, this is Hinakawa Sho and he'll be joining us for the time being."
Back at the Inspector's desks, Gino stood up. "Welcome, Hinakawa-san," he began, "It's-"
Right in the middle of his sentence, Kagari let out a loud wail, leaping out of his chair to point a shaking finger at Hinakawa.
"You!" he screeched. Yayoi surreptitiously covered her ears with her hand.
Frowning disapprovingly, Gino began a sharp reprimand, but Kogami turned an incredulous grey stare onto him, and Gino frowned even harder.
Meanwhile, Kagari was blubbering like a fish. "You told me your name was Kawa Jo," the Enforcer complained, running a hand through his disorderly locks.
"I d-didn't," Hinakawa said weakly. The other Enforcers threw amused looks toward Kagari.
"Kawa Jo? Seriously?" scoffed Masaoka.
Ignoring the old man, Kagari continued to gape at a very flustered Hinakawa who Akane quickly pushed to his station.
"This is where you'll work," Akane announced, tapping lightly against the chair. "The person next to you is Kogami-san, and he'd be more than willing," here, she paused and shot a meaningful glance to the aforementioned man, "to help and answer any questions you might have."
Nodding, the curly haired boy slipped into the seat, and just as he was about to begin the long and dreary process of administrative work, Kagari spun around and pointed dramatically, again, at Hinakawa.
"HINAKAWA SHO!" Kagari cried. "I challenge you to another round of Hungry Chicken! And Micro Boy! And Dragoon Knight! And-"
Kogami threw his cigarette tray at the excited Enforcer, and all hell broke loose.
Meanwhile, Gino sat slumped in his seat, hands rubbing his throbbing head as he lamented on his terrible decision making as Akane simply stood to the side and laughed.
a/n: tell me your thoughts!