The Inspector looked up at the gangly young gentleman cowering right in front of her. They were in the middle of introducing themselves to one another, as was custom whenever a new recruit was assigned into a division.

"Tsunemori Akane, Inspector of Division One," she saluted at him.

He seemed to pause for a second, as if he had thought she was going to treat him with the same callous professionalism that was often dictated to other Latent Criminals.

"H-hinakawa Sho, Enforcer!" He bowed low at the waist as he tried to mask his blush.

"I know that you'll help us out on the missions! Isn't that right, Mr. Hinakawa Sho?" The young woman looked up at her new subordinate in what appeared to be sincere gratitude.

He wasn't much to look at, with all his hair covering most of his face, and he sure didn't look the part of a Latent Criminal, but she knew that he would do well under Division One's wings. There was a reason why the MWPSB assigned him to her division.

"Welcome to Division One of MWPSB!" She announced happily.

The redhead looked lost for a second, as if he was wondering why she was acting so kind to a person like him. Shyly, he peeked out from his mass of bangs before he responded in kind to her welcome.

"O-o course, Miss Tsunemori! I will try to do my best!"

He bowed low while Akane smiled brightly at his timidity.

He reminded her of her first day on the job.

"He looks like a keeper," a young man with light colored hair surmised. He looked down at the brimming Japanese populace, but he was staring down at one particular human. Although there was a tone of sarcasm lacing his words, there was something completely sincere the way he said it. However, there was still some pity in his gaze as he twirled a pen around in his hand. "Not sure how he'll handle the Dominators, though."

An elderly gentleman socked the younger man in the shoulder, relishing in the boy's muttered cries of foul play. Like the younger gentleman, he was wearing a suit, but he wore a tan overcoat as well. While the younger man seemed to have this subtle bitterness about him, the older man carried himself with a sense of freedom and relief. Besides the fact that the both of them shared the same stylistic choices in their apparel, the two of them would have passed for complete strangers.

"What's a youngster like you living in the past?" Jovially, he chuckled before he turned to the direction the younger man was looking. The elderly man sobered up before looking down at the group of specific people below. Whereas the redhead looked at his replacement, the older man looked at someone else: a man with a tan overcoat just like his. "Kagari, shouldn't you be hitting on some random girls, making fun of people behind their backs, and all that dumb kid stuff? Like what other people your age is doing."

The shorter man looked at his senior doubtfully, like he was out of his mind or something.

Then again, they were both dead. Things could be taken out of proportion if they so choose.

They also had an eternity to talk about this.

"How can I do that, Masaoka, when everyone I ever loved is down there?"

"You make it sound like it's a bad thing that we landed up here."

Kagari shrugged halfheartedly; his mind was already someplace else. While being dead relieved him of his pointless existence on earth and as a dog for the MWPSB, he still felt the urge to go down there and help out. Already, his assigned division on earth was already falling apart; Kougami was gone, Akane was slowly hardening into a miniature Ginoza, and the rest were trying to forget. He didn't want that for his team. For him, his team was the family that he never got to experience as a kid. Now that he left his family behind, what was the point of the big beyond and living a life without hardship? It seemed unfair that while he was living like a king up in the white fluffy clouds, his family on earth was suffering hardship.

The injustice of the situation made Kagari wish that he was down there.

Just when the redhead was about to speak more about his situation, he felt an age worn hand wrap around his shoulder in a comforting gesture.

Instantly, the younger man felt the urge to shrug the gesture off, but he found that he couldn't. (For one, the elderly gentleman was stronger than he looked. And for two, he truly respected Masaoka... and maybe, he really wanted the comfort that the old man had offered.)

Kagari began again, "I just…Don't you think that they're moving on too soon?" Petulantly, he looked down at the city below, at the city and lights. He watched as people went about their daily business, always trying to find a new way to keep their hues clear.

What a pointless existence! And for what? Just for the sake of conformity and the urge to usher in a whole generation of depressant addicts. It was all so depressing. "I know that they are a lot stronger than they looked, but still…"

"Kagari, you've spent too long looking down on your old life slipping past you. It's about time that you move on…" Masaoka paused, as if trying to find the right words. Back on earth, he was the mentor of the group, the one with the well-honed instincts of both predator and father. Here, he would prove to live up to that position once again. "Maybe you could grow up and enjoy the life that you would have never gotten down there." Concluding that statement, the older man made sure that his junior made sure that he heard him.

His stern of voice was enough for the younger man to look at his senior in shame. Guilt gnawed in the pit of Masaoka's stomach, but he knew it would pass. As a father, he knew that the things he were going to say were going to impact the lives of those he influenced. This was for the better. And besides, if Kagari kept on lamenting the fact that he was gone, what would become of him?

The ex-latent criminal took the older man's words into consideration before he turned to the world below. Before, he had been wary of this device (a portal, the people called it) that everyone was allowed access to. It seemed almost taboo to look at the people's lives, watch them all play out. He had seen so many terrible things happen. He had seen that most people weren't what they seemed. He had seen, he had learned, and he wished that he hadn't looked at the living world, the mortal world for what it truly was. It was too late, however. He had taken one look at his living friends and he knew that he could never forget them.

They all looked like pieces of their life was already missing. The members of the old team had tried to live their lives and they did. Slowly, they moved all the things that belonged to the old hunting dogs of Division One until all that was left was the wayward jelly beans that Kagari had kicked under the table. All his games, his room, even some stray hair clips were thrown away! It had hurt knowing that the people he considered family were deliberately throwing him away, but he guessed that they couldn't help it. With Kou gone, Ginoza's position compromised, and the other two dogs put down, it seemed that life would be forever hectic for Akane.

The first time that he met her, he thought she was going to end up like Ginoza. She had the fine makings of someone who would ardently follow the rules to the letter. She looked like she was going to take everything straight from the book and would respond to orders without hesitation. Sure, she still had the newbie vibes, but that was sure to disappear once she got the hang of it. Kagari had seen it many times over the course of his short career. Many promising Inspectors would look like ordinary people who respected the likes of the Latent Criminals and then boom! They would turn into indiscriminate lapdogs to the system; they would always regard the criminals as the dogs to society. In short, it was all so humiliating to know what friends he could have made would eventually turn on him.

So, in the beginning, he wasn't pushing for much.

Until that fateful moment.

Until that moment that young Inspector would shoot one of his best friends in the back all for the sake of justice for the victim. A part of him was scared that she would shoot with emotions like that running in her veins. To be honest, anyone would be scared if they knew that one of their superiors was wielding a gun and would shoot one of her subordinates for the sake of holding up some virtues for the godforsaken law. How could someone raised to praise the law blatantly ignore it for a moral code that no one really adhered to?

It was at that moment he became intrigued by her.

And of course, there was that conversation he had with her in the cafeteria.

Admittedly, he may have been holding a few biases against those who weren't deemed impure and he was a little on edge since the incident. As it was, he was sure to have earned himself a bad page on her book, but then she apologized for flaunting her freedom in front of him! For once, there was this person. This person with everything, who could literally kill him if she wanted to, was actually treating him like a decent human! It felt all so surreal.

It felt so welcoming.

This friendship that he developed with Akane was a little bit more than what he was accustomed to. With Yayoi, he felt like the awkward younger sibling with a penchant for shenanigans. With her girlfriend, Shion, with all her smooth words and seductive dress, he felt like a kid again; he felt shy and he wanted to run away in terror. Masaoka, while he meant well, Kagari knew that he didn't want to replace his old father with someone else. If anything, Ginoza needed him the most, not him. Speaking of that old fart, it was strictly a professional relationship. While Kagari may have broken through the some of his walls while he was in the force, for the most part the older man had remained cold to him. And finally, there was Kougami. Sympathetic for the younger boy, he had always made sure that he had someone to play with whenever he felt lonely and he listened to Kagari whenever he wanted to vent. It didn't help at all that Kougami often invited him over for a drinking session or two.

He was one of the best.

And now…what was there to make of him?

He was stuck up there and he felt the urge to just fall from the sky so that he was back on the team.

He wanted to make sure that they would smile again without having to fake it.

"I don't think Akane will be alright," Kagari confessed. Of all the others, she had seemed the most fragile. Constantly, he would find her breathing in the addictive smoke of Kougami's cigarettes, and she was usually ignoring her little hologram. That would have been alright for a little while, except she never stopped. Kagari had an inkling of how close she was to Kougami, but now he was finally seeing it in person.

She was truly heartbroken by his disappearance.

Masaoka found himself shaking his head at Kagari's admission.

"Nah, the little lady can take care of herself. She's just focusing more on the big picture and not on herself." The older man gave a small smile, his weathered face looking peaceful for the first time. For a newbie, she was one of the most professional Inspectors he had had the pleasure of meeting. "God, she's maturing into a fine young woman."

The fourth dog of Division One, snorted at the older man's proud tone.

"Don't give yourself too much credit. With Ginoza no longer the one with authority, she has to pick up the slack." Kagari narrowed his eyes once more at the scene below. It seemed that while they were talking, the scenery had changed and other changes were occurring in the world below. "Especially since her new subordinate looks and acts worse than ol' Gino."

There was a jab to Kagari's sternum, causing the young man to yelp in pain.

"Don't judge her just yet. Besides, I have a feeling that things will heal in time."

"I know that," Kagari insisted stubbornly. "It's just that…"

Sighing, the older man looked down at the world below. He wasn't one for prying into the lives of the living, but he just wanted to make sure that all was well. For him, everything seemed to fine, except that one of the new Enforcers seemed a little off…

"Speak up, son. We may have got an eternity up here, but I can be a bit impatient at times."

What did he want to talk about? What did he really leave behind when he was murdered by the system?

And that's when Kagari realized.

"I don't want to be forgotten. I don't want to be left behind like a used children's toy. It makes me feel like I served no purpose on earth other than to serve as a dog to a system who hated me ever since I was a child. I served no other purpose than to see that our system was actually composed of living brains." Kagari paused for a moment, momentarily stunned and disgusted that he was crying. Masaoka, being wise, looked away respectfully as the redhead pulled himself together. "Would you actually leave everything like that, completely unfinished?" He looked away from the images of the earth down below, the sight of all those carefree people making him want to hide away somewhere. "It's like those video games I used to play. You want to be known as that person who defeated all those levels, the one who killed that boss in the shortest time, the one who got the most power ups by the end of the session. Would you want to be known as that underachiever who barely got to the middle of the game before quitting? That's not like me!"

Masaoka carefully watched as the younger man looked like he was only a few seconds away from breaking down into despair. With gentleness that he didn't know he still had, Masaoka carefully let his arms envelope the younger man, like one would handle a child.

He should have known. He should have realized.

Even if Kagari had died, he was still grieving and he was still very much a child at times.

But, Masaoka thought determinedly, he was going to pull through this. All he needed was a small push.

"Don't worry, Kagari," Masaoka tried to soothe. "People come and go, but I doubt that you will be forgotten…and I have a feeling that the new Enforcer will fill your role with flying colors."

Kagari sniffed a bit before nodding in assent.

What was he doing? Staring at the world below was a complete waste of time! Just by staring at his former colleagues was like undermining their efforts to live and move on from the past. Besides, would this be how he wanted to be remembered? Did he really want to be that person who held onto the past with an aching vengeance? He had seen how Kou was driven to near exile when he chased over that prick, Makishima. He had seen the pain in Ginoza's eyes when he realized that despite his best efforts, his best friend had become the thing that he most hated.

And now, conflicting ideologies were tearing up his friends once again in the mortal world. Akane and the others remained within the confines of Sybil's control, but Kougami remained elusive. Even in his self-imposed banishment, Kougami still nursed his hate for Makishima.

He didn't want to end up like that.

He didn't want to end up wasting the rest of his immortal existence looking at his friends and wondering what could have been, what should have been, and when they were going to forget him.

At that moment, Kagari knew that he had to make up his mind.

He was going to let go.

"Since when did I become such a whiny brat when I could be having fun!" He jumped away from Masaoka's embrace before he turned his back on the world below. It was time that he finally let go. Besides, Masaoka was probably right. The newbie was probably going to be a great replacement…and if he let Akane get hurt…

"Hey! Let's go visit Sassayama!"

Akane paused in the middle of her paperwork, as if someone had interrupted her. She whipped her head back and forth, as if she was in the middle of a verbal tennis match between two colleagues. For a few seconds, the only subordinate in the room gave her a worried gaze before asking.

"Ah…Miss Tsunemori, why do y-you look so c-confused?" His hands were fisting the edges of his standard dress and his woeful eyes looked at her below his shaggy bangs. He analyzed her for a few seconds, looking out for the telltale signs of lunacy, depression, or some other mental defect that Sybil judged to be impure. "Is there something wrong?"

Was her hue getting clouded?

Was she getting overloaded with work?

Did she require assistance?

Hesitantly, the young man walked away from his own station and approached his superior's. He stood by her side, waiting for a reaction that would either alert him to get some help, or reassure him that she was in the clear. For the sake of her reputation, he sincerely prayed that this was a onetime thing and that this was nothing to worry about.

Unaware of her lackey's insistence to remain close to her side, Akane seemed to space out for a few more seconds before turning to her Enforcer. A broad, but slightly droopy smile appeared on her face. There was some sort of regret and sadness on her features, but she smiled despite those pervasive feelings.

"Nothing's wrong…I just felt like someone said goodbye."

The newest Enforcer would stare uncomprehendingly at his superior before he would turn back to his work.