"I feel as though history is in some ways repeating itself, mister Ginoza." Nobuchika said nothing as he continued to approach the man from behind, Dominator drawn and ready. The man didn't turn, continuing to stand at the center of the large, empty warehouse. "Two hundred and seventy three. That is how many years ago Commodore Perry came to this island and forced it to open its door to the world, ending centuries of isolation."
"Where is she!" Ginoza barked. He continued to move towards the man.
"All business I see." The man stated with a sigh. Ginoza was now right behind him, close enough that he could physically strike at him if he took a leap forward.
"Where is she!" Ginoza repeated, yelling louder this time.
"She is exactly where she needs to be." The man replied. He turned around to look at the Enforcer. "And you can even see her if you want, as long as you do exactly as I say."
Psycho-Pass: Incursion
Chapter 1: Dance in the Dark
Six months earlier
The heavy rain was one which Akane was familiar with. For whatever reason, it always seemed to rain whenever a target for enforcement ran into the district she was currently on the outskirts of. The place somehow looked worst then it had thirteen years ago when she had first laid eyes on it, the decaying cityscape falling apart faster than it was being maintained.
Looking away from the sight, she almost bumped into Ginoza, who was standing right next to her holding up an umbrella over them both. The two had already been on the road when the call came in, leading them to reach the location well ahead of the rest of Division One.
Neither said anything as they waited for their comrades, a decade of work making them more then capable of knowing what the other was thinking in this situation.
The distant sound of a siren took their attention, a transport and a car from the bureau being permitted through the line of robots guarding the entrance to the district.
"How do you think he'll do?" Akane asked absentmindedly.
"I have no idea. Kid's fine in the office, but this is his first field assignment. This is where theory goes into practice, and you know all too well how unpredictable that can be." Ginoza replied.
A few meters away from them, the car came to a stop. From it, Mika exited the driver side, while a brown haired man in his early twenties came out of the passenger side.
"Junior Inspector Katashi Yamauchi, front and center on the double." Mika almost yelled at the younger man as both ran towards Akane.
"Inspector Akane Tsunemori, Junior Inspector Katashi Yamauchi reporting for duty, ma'am." The young man stated, standing up straight and giving a salute while trying to catch his breath, ignoring the heavy rain which was falling onto him. On the inside Akane was laughing at the sight, but she didn't let that show on her face. The fact of the matter was there was nothing funny about the circumstances which had led to the Junior Inspector becoming a part of her ranks.
The public security bureau already had a long standing manpower shortage at home, and the problem had only gotten worst in recent years due to the Japanese-Union Joint Security and Law Enforcement Treaty of 2120. Initially intended to allow for the deployment of Inspectors and Enforcers into the South East Asian Union to assist local law enforcement, in the six years since its ratification more and more Inspectors and Enforcers found themselves being deployed for longer periods of time to assist Union security forces until a full half of all those who worked in the field where in the other nation at any given time. It wasn't a big surprise given how the nation had six times Japan's population in an area twelve times its size where crime was orders of magnitude more common.
The 'meat grinder' as had become the popular name for the Union, had become a trial by fire for new Inspectors. The rank of Junior Inspector was for those who had been new to the work, and would act as an assistant to the two inspectors of a Division for between six and twelve months before being sent on a twelve month deployment into the Union. Any who managed to return without having their Crime Coefficient go above one hundred where officially made full Inspectors.
It saddened Akane to think about it, seeing the young Junior Inspector and knowing full well that he had better then even odds of coming home in hand cuffs in the next two years, but that wasn't what mattered in this instant.
"Inspector Tsunemori, what's the situation?" Mika asked, opening her own umbrella to cover herself and Katashi.
"We have a group being held at gunpoint in a tower near the center of the district. The hostages are mostly locals of the area, but it seems there are some Union tourists in the mix as well." Akane explained, a holographic image of CCTV footage being displayed in front of each of the Inspectors and Ginoza. "The suspects are a group of anarchists who have somehow gotten their hands on weapons. They've made a ransom demand on the internet in the form of money, the release of members of their group from mental health facilities, and the raising of the Latent Criminal Crime Coefficient demarcation point to 125. There are six suspects, however we shouldn't discount the possibility there are more we aren't aware of."
"Rules of engagement, ma'am?" Katashi asked.
"Return fire if fired upon, but if you catch one unarmed try and take them alive. This requires more organization then a few latent criminals; I want to know who they got their weapons from, how they got from the supplier to here, and how they did it without being caught." Akane answered. Mika didn't say anything, though it was clear that she didn't agree with the order. She had long learned keep such thoughts to herself however, as she more often than not turned out to be wrong on these matters. Akane turned her attention to Ginoza. "Did they hear that?"
"Loud and clear." Yayoi stated, her voice coming from the device on Ginoza's wrist.
"Good. Time to go hunting." With that statement, the transport opened up.
Katashi was clearly nervous as he watched the Enforcers walk out into the rain. He had worked with them in the office before, and managed to remain calm in the presence of Ginoza, but this wasn't headquarters, this was the field.
Akane wondered if it was a curse for Division One to have the first missions of its new Inspectors be big ones. Happened to the last three Junior Inspectors as well.
X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X
On the fifth level of an old office building, a man armed with an old rifle peaked out of the window into the streets below. His comrades where in the next room over, deeper within the structure where there were no windows and entrance was limited to only three places which could be bottlenecked at.
Overhead, a drone flew by just above the top of the towers in the area. Seeing this, he took out a radio from his pocket.
"They're here."
"Good, let them come and do exactly as I tell you."
X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X
"Akane, we've secured the exit to the building. If this is the right one, we've got them cut off from escape." Mika informed her.
Akane looked over the main entrance to the building, which had her, Katashi, Ginoza and two other Enforcers guarding. Had they been in range of the security bots, one would have been prepared for a breach, but with their current location making that impossible more traditional methods where being used in the form of a battering ram being held by the Enforcers.
"Ma'am, should we begin breaching?" Katashi asked, Dominator at the ready. Akane looked over the door. Something felt off about it, this was too easy.
"No. I want a thermal on this place." She ordered.
"Thermal? That'll add a lot of time to this." Ginoza informed her.
"I don't care." Akane stated back. "Katashi, go back to the transport and get a few pairs of thermals."
"Yes ma'am." Katashi didn't waste a moment running back where they'd come from.
"Akane, what's going on, I'm not hearing anything." Mika's voice asked from her wrist.
"I'm taking this one slow Mika, hold your position and guard the door."
"Yes Chief Inspector."
X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X
"Why aren't they taking the bait?" The anarchist asked himself, looking down at the group. "They've been there for five minutes."
In the other room, one of the anarchists was getting twitchy.
"Come on, come on! I don't want to wait forever!" He yelled, shacking slightly.
"Ah shut up, you're going to scare the hostages, and I don't want that happening before they start running into here." Another, the leader of the group, barked.
"Oh yeah, and what are you going to do about it?" The first one asked. His answer was in the form of the man's fist hitting his face hard.
"You talk to me that way one more time and it's a bullet you hear me?"
"Calm down, all of you. If you want to make it out of this alive you need to stop fighting amongst yourselves." A voice said over the radio they all had on their hip.
X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X
"What the hell is that thing?" Katashi asked. He and Akane had thermal goggles on, and though the obscured their vision and greatly limited their line of sight, both could clearly see an object which stood out as a bright red amongst the blue of the rest of its surroundings.
"That, Katashi, is a bomb, one which seems to be connected to a tripwire on the other side of the door." Akane informed him. She had been right that something was up, but what she was looking at changed everything. "Mika, I'm calling in Division Four for backup, this just got a lot more complicated."
"What? What's happening?"
"They've got a bomb set up at the door."
X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X
"Shit, I think they spotted the trap." The anarchist by the window stated.
"Ah crap, now what?" Another asked.
"Do not get panic; they will be taking their time. Do not give it to them." The voice over the radio stated.
"And how do we do that?"
"Take one of the hostages, bring them into clear sight of a window where they can see them but not you, and threaten to kill them if someone doesn't start speaking with you."
Hearing that, one of the women in the group let out a scream of fear.
"Looks like we have a volunteer." The leader said, grabbing the woman by the arm and dragging her to the door. She screamed, doing her best to kick him away. The leader smacked her to try and get her to stop, which didn't work, leading to another, and another, until eventually she did. The leader stood next to his partner who was by the window. He shoved the woman in front of the windows along the side of the structure, staying hidden behind a thick pillar as he aimed his weapon at the woman. "Don't move." He then used the butt of his rifle to break away a piece of the window. The old thing shattered around the point of impact with ease. He positioned himself alongside the hole he had just created and started to yell. "I demand to speak with a representative of the government, or I will execute this hostage. You have five minutes to respond."
X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X
"Shion, how long until Division Four gets here?" Akane asked over the comm.
"Twenty minutes, give or take."
"That's too long." She muttered under her breath. "Five minutes isn't enough time to run to the wagon and dig out a megaphone."
"Akane, let me try and get their attention." Ginoza offered. "I may not be able to communicate with them, but one of us could have a chance at taking a shot."
"No, I have a better idea." Akane looked at the adjacent building. "That building has seven stories. If you can get to the roof you can keep an eye on them from above and wait for an opening."
"Understood." Without another word he ran into the building.
"Is it a good idea to let him go on his own like that?" Katashi asked.
"If you think he'll run away now, with all the chances he's had to do it over the years, you don't know Gino very well." Akane stated back. "Alright all of you, we don't have time to wait for Division Four, and we can't break down the door. We're going to have to find a part of the wall weak enough for us to force our way in."
The team moved quickly, moving along the wall keeping an eye for someplace to brake in through. It didn't take long as they found boarded up windows on the side of which used to be the main street of the district back in the days it wasn't a ghetto. Akane flipped down the thermal goggles, taking a good look at the area.
"It's clear." She moved herself up against one of the panels, Dominator raised, ready for anything. Katashi did the same a good two meters away, and the rest of the team took the battering ram and with a mighty swing smashed right through the plywood and thick glass beyond.
The Enforcers didn't waste a moment dropping the ram and looking over the room, Dominators searching for people to scan.
"Clear." Yayoi declared as the group found the large room to be devoid of human life. Akane and Katashi entered after that, Dominators drawn just in case the Enforcers had missed someone. Akane looked over the room and then the ceiling with use of the goggles.
"There's no one in any of the adjacent rooms or the doom above us, but there is another bomb at the staircase." She declared. Katashi put on his own thermals to confirm what she had seen.
"How are we supposed to get up to them then?" The Junior Inspector asked.
"The elevators, obviously." Sho stated. Everyone gave him an odd look. "What? Elevators in this area tend to be broken since landlords are too cheap to maintain them. Elevators means ladders, ladders mean we get where we're trying to go."
"That's probably the best route." Akane stated, taking a moment to think the options out. "They seem to have been prepared for our coming here; this was definitely planned well ahead of time. If they overlooked the elevator then we could catch them from an avenue they didn't expect."
While the team was quickly coming up with a plan while also putting it into action, Ginoza had reached the roof of the tower across from the one the hostages were being held in. Taking a moment to catch his breath, he looked down at the windows where he could clearly see a woman lying on the ground. For a moment he wondered if he was too late, but after a second he could see her moving slightly. Pointing his Dominator at her, she was marked as having a crime coefficient of 198.2, making her a target for Non-Lethal Paralyzer mode. He then looked around at the corners of the windows, spotting the end of a rifle sticking out from behind a pillar.
"Akane, I have eyes on a hostage and know where at least one of the anarchists are. Can't get a line of sight on him though."
"That's good enough for now. Wait until you get a clear shot."
"What if he's subject to Lethal Elimination?"
"Then take the shot. We have others we can capture; he's too much of a risk for executing the hostage. If you get the shot, take it."
"Understood."
Climbing the ladder within the elevator shaft, Akane took point as she climbed with her goggles on, keeping eyes out for any potential bombs.
X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X
"It's been five minutes." The anarchist said to the leader. "You going to do this?"
"Yeah." Though he said it without hesitation, his body language said otherwise. The two had been leaning against the building's pillar, keeping an eye out for any police. "We said we'd do it if they didn't respond, and they haven't." He slowly lifted himself up, back remaining against the pillar as he did so.
"N-no, please, please!" The women begged, shaking in fear as the rifle was pointed towards her.
"Sorry, but they had the chance to talk." Pointing the rifle towards her, he took a moment to get her clearly in his sights. He hesitated a moment, and that was all that was needed as he felt a sudden shock go through his left arm, followed immediately by a massive shock of pain which overloaded his senses as his left arm rapidly expanded before the organic matter within went in all directions, covering his face with blood and pulverized bits of body part.
Crying in agony at the pain, he instantly dropped his weapon and rolled forward, entering a fetal position as he clutched at the missing arm. His partner and the hostage both screamed in fear at the sudden act, and an instant later both where covered in pieces of the group's leader as another lethal shot hit him, this time in the back right below his head.
"Akane, I've taken out one of the anarchists." Ginoza informed her. He gave a quick scan of the woman for good measure. "The hostage has gone above three hundred, but I believe it's only temporary. Wait, she's moving."
The hostage, in a state of panic, struggled to get to her feet before trying to run away, an act which was ended as she was struck by multiple bullets.
"The hostage has been shot! There's another one of them in that room."
"Keep your eyes open for him. Rules of engagement apply." Akane ordered.
"Understood. Where are you?"
"We're at the fifth floor now." Akane answered. She had moved herself above the elevator as Sho and Yayoi took stood on each side of the elevator door, doing their best to both hold on while also opening it. The first inch was always the hardest, and once they got a good grip on it the door slipped open with ease. Akane took off the thermal goggles and handed them to Yayoi. Putting them on, Yayoi peaked out of the shaft and into the hallway, looking in all directions before moving back in.
"I see about a dozen people in a room to the left, four are standing, the rest are seated. No bombs as far as I can tell." She informed them.
"I've got movement, I think…" Ginoza's voice stated being cut off by the sound of gunfire.
"Gino!" Akane cried out over the comm.
"I'm alright, he must have figured out where I was. He's doing a blind spray in my direction. I'm behind cover." He stated, assuring her of his safety. "I'm going to a lower level to try and keep him off guard."
"Roger." With a few signals from her hands, she ordered the group into the hall. Each one moved with a deliberately slow pace, making sure that each step was as gentle as possible to avoid making any noise. Even from the elevator they could hear the anarchists shouting amongst themselves.
"I told you we never should have listened to him." The muffled voice of a man yelled. Akane and Katashi looked at each other at hearing that. None said anything as they continued to walk towards the room.
"And I told you everything was under control." Another yelled back.
"He's going to get us killed, and everything will have been for nothing!"
"It is not my fault you went off script. I have specific orders on what had to be done. It is not my fault that you forgot to set up explosive charges in the elevator shaft."
"What the hell are you talking about?" The first anarchist asked, panic clear in his voice.
"They are already here; in fact they can hear me now." The voice replied, sending a chill down Akane's spine as she realized they were aware of their presence. "Take a hostage each and use them as a human shield. I cannot guarantee your survival now, but I will do my best with what I have to work with."
A series of shrieks where heard from the room. Taking the thermals from Yayoi, Akane saw that each of the people they thought where the anarchists took a person in their arms, holding them against themselves with their arms seemingly pointing weapons at their heads.
"Hello Division One, it is an honour to finally meet you, though indirectly. Inspector Akane Tsunemori, I should have expected it to be you who would cause problems for my plans. It's quite unfortunate; any other unit would likely have failed here, though I suspect that is why Sibyl sent you." As the voice continued to speak, the Enforcers and Inspectors flanked one of the doors to the room. "It's quite unfortunate that you've chosen to align yourself with such a monstrosity. I'll admit I'm no paragon of virtue such as yourself, but one has to ask themselves which is worst, evil working for good, or good working for evil?"
There was a silence as no one, law enforcement, terrorist or hostage, spoke.
"Not willing to answer, I see. Well, perhaps this will get a reaction out of you. Kill the hostages you aren't using as human shields."
"No!" One of the hostages yelled as the sound of bullets rang through the air, screams of agony, both from pain and from fear, filled the floor.
"You see Inspector Akane Tsunemori; I hold all the cards in this match. I've already won. Have my pawns from this board, I have no need for them anymore."
"W-what? You're just leaving us here to die?"
"You meant nothing to me. I gave you everything you needed to escape this alive, but it was your own choice weather to follow my instructions or not. Live or die, it makes no difference to me; my goal was accomplished the moment the Enforcers set foot in this building. Which is why I'm thankful you wore the vests I provided as ordered, as the remotely detonated explosives within."
"What!"
"Get down!" Akane ordered. Diving towards the ground, most hadn't fallen on their torsos by the time the bombs went off, consuming the room in a ball of fire and throwing the doors to it clear off. In the distance, the two vests of the anarchists near the exterior of the tower went off as well, leaving a large hole in its side going up and down a floor.
"Akane, are you alright? Akane! AKANE!" Ginoza yelled in a panic.
"Status report!" Mika yelled as well.
"I'm alright. Scratched up but I'm alright." Akane assured them, ears ringing and slightly dizzy. "How are the rest of you?"
"Ah, there's something in my leg." Yayoi groaned, arms on her right thy. There was a small metal object which was visibly wedged inside, a small trickle of blood soaking into her pants and onto the floor.
"Sho, put some pressure on that wound. Katashi, get your jacket off and tie it around to cut off circulation." Akane ordered without thinking.
"What's happening, what happened to Yayoi?" Shion asked, fear filling her voice.
"She's been hit by a piece of shrapnel. It's not life threatening but we need a stretcher."
"How are we going to even get it to you? Every door we've seen in the first four floors seems to have a bomb on it." Mika asked.
"A helicopter." Shion stated. "We can use a helicopter from here to get you all out of there without having to backtrack though the lower floors."
"That works. The roof's just above us, so we're not going to have to move her very far." Akane looked at Yayoi. "How you holding up?"
"I'm fine. Hurts like hell but I'll survive." Despite her words, the shakiness of her voice made it clear she could very well pass out at any moment.
It took several minutes, but the helicopter made it quickly, a pair of medics carefully placing Yayoi on a stretcher once they'd made their way down to the top floor. Akane's team save Ginoza went with them straight to headquarters, while he and Mika's team waited for Division Four to arrive and release them. Division Four would spend the night using remote controlled drones to safely detonate the explosives.
Mika, the only Inspector of Division One still in the field, allowed Ginoza to return to headquarters in her police car instead of the transport.
"Feeling charitable today Mika?" Ginoza asked as the car drove itself onto a highway.
"No, but we need to talk."
"I'm listening."
"Akane is going to blame herself for this. She's going to need someone to tell her it isn't her fault, and to get her to actually believe it." There was a silence for several moments.
"I'm aware of that, just like you're aware that I would have done so even if you hadn't told me." The rest of the trip was silent.
X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X
Inside his vantage point over the crime scene from the tenth floor of a building a block over, Hoshi looked over his handiwork with a pair of binoculars. He let out a quiet, low laugh as he saw smoke still leaving the building from the explosions earlier.
"And so, it begins." He put down the binoculars and walked out of the room, setting the timer for a bomb within for a ten minute delay. As he left, he started singing. "O say can you see, by the dawns early light…"
Ten minutes later, the run down apartment exploded, damaging the entire top levels of the building it was a part of.
Case 918fsbao.113:
Culprits: [Name redacted] x 6
Victims: [Name redacted] x 14
Outcome: All perpetrators dead, one by legal execution, five by suicide. All hostages executed by perpetrators.
Status: Case Closed