"Are you alright with this?" she had asked him tentatively; pallid fingers curled around the mug she was holding in her palm
"Of course, you know I wouldn't have done well in an isolation facility."
Akane studied him carefully, nodding slowly, as if she understood what he was saying. Perhaps she did to some degree, but Nobuchika knew better. He had become an Enforcer for his own reasons. It was actually quite strange to be working under Akane for once-to think: he berated her and her inexperience. Now, oh, now their positions were quite different.
"Of course but," she paused. "Are you holding up alright?" her eyes lit up with concern as she gazed upon him.
"Yes, yes," Nobuchika allowed a soft laugh to escape his lips. He drummed his prosthetic fingers upon the table. Ah, that was also another thing to get used to. The Enforcer hadn't expected so much change in such seemingly little time. He couldn't help but allot a soft breath of nostalgia to pass through.
"What is it?"
"Nothing," he smiled. "I was just thinking."
"Of?"
"Before."
"In what sense?"
He was not a nostalgic person, neither was the woman before him, now that he glanced upon her. Akane looked at him expectantly; brown eyes alert for any sort of change in his posture or behavior. Nobuchika smiled a bit more. Oh, he could remember how she had come running in the rain, almost tripping, the first day they had met. The way she had saluted him; panting from running yet eager to do her job nonetheless. Now there she was: experienced and taking the reins; replacing him in his work.
"Not a terribly major one," his gaze flickered to his hand; the prosthetic one. He couldn't help but feel as though he was like his father in yet another sense. There were parallels. Parallels that were quite difficult to accept. "I was just remembering before when you joined the team."
"Ah," Akane smiled wistfully and gazed out of the window; small droplets of rain pelting against the windows lightly as the two colleagues spoke. "Didn't we meet on a night like this?" her eyes carefully trained upon the city lights and the people who rushed by: some with umbrellas, some shielding their heads with an arm, hurrying home quickly.
"I believe so," the former Inspector replied. "What were my words to you?"
"Being short-staffed."
"I was so cold," Nobuchika chuckled a bit. "I told you the Enforcers were dogs."
"I hardly believed you."
"You never really listened."
"I did. Sometimes. You were stoic," Akane said; gaze still trained upon the window as if she didn't dare meet his eyes. "You told me good things and you told me bad things. I grew to like the Enforcers. They weren't bad people."
"They never were."
"Do you say that now because you are one?"
"Hardly," he took a sip of his drink. "As my stress increased, I began to realize things. You were right all along, Inspector."
"Akane."
"Is that really fitting?"
"I know, I'm above you," she paused once more. "But I want you to call me Akane. I'm familiar enough with you. The formalities are pointless."
"When did you become this way?" Nobuchika placed his mug upon the table once more; its warm, brown contents sloshing around its confinements.
"What way?"
"A detective."
The brunette blinked at him in confusion, as if she were unsure as to whether it was a joke, or not. Was it a joke? It seemed she could hardly tell. "Thank you..." she began slowly.
"I wasn't being condescending," Nobuchika reclined his chin in his hand. "I mean it. You've changed. Perhaps a bit too fast, but you have."
"Shion said the same thing."
"When you've been in the business for a while, you do notice change," he commented. "You've become a fine detective. But are you sure you're the one alright?"
"I don't understand what you mean." Akane replied warily.
"Now, now," he rolled his eyes. "Please, don't regard me that way. I know what's troubling you-or at least, what you're thinking about."
"Just what am I thinking about?" she began to lightly drum her nails upon the table, as if having a slight fit that had spazzed into her fingers.
"Shinya."
She stopped drumming her fingers.
"You miss him, don't you?"
Akane sighed and began to lightly tap her foot, "I suppose, but... he left. He went to the wrong side of the law."
"But that didn't change anything for you, did it?"
Akane smiled weakly. "It never would have."
"Have you been researching him?"
"I tried," she ran a hand through her hair. "I feel like I'm invading a barrier," the Inspector admitted slowly. "As if he wanted to leave and never be found. Am I-disrupting something, I mean. I just... don't know. I want to find him. I want him to be an Enforcer again. I want the old team," she added. "I know why things are never going to be the way they were but don't you just... want them to?"
"Every day," Nobuchika sighed. They were not nostalgic people, but even those who looked solely towards the future could be caught up in nostalgia's bittersweet depths. "You tell me, Akane, where will that get us? I think about all the people we have lost to be where we are now. They helped us grow, personally, if you will. We've become better people for society. If we mourned their deaths constantly and grasped at the past desperately, where would we be? Wouldn't we be sick, a bit mad, and filled with a fruitless passion of clinging to something we can't? People weren't meant to live that way. I miss my father every day but I know better than to cry and mourn about the past. I understand you miss Shinya and want him to return but just think about it."
"I have."
"What has he done?"
The woman closed her eyes. "He killed. He went against Sibyl to complete his mission."
"Do you think they would allot him return so easily?"
She shook her head, suddenly feeling nauseous.
"Exactly. I miss him, too, Akane, he and I go way back, even, but we can't mourn forever. What was his dedication?"
"Finding Makishima."
"Now, what is your dedication?"
"... finding Shinya..."
"Think about what you're doing and what he did. Akane, I'm begging you, don't fall into that same rut."
She paused and took a sip of her drink, hand trembling slightly as she lifted the mug. "I-is this why you took me out for coffee?"
Nobuchika sighed and flexed his prosthetic fingers. "Sadly: yes. Well, partially. I wanted you to not be alone. I also wanted to talk to you about this. I also want you to know that if you need to talk: I'm here. You need to know that. You're not the only one who has lost people from the team."
She nodded slowly, flashing him a weak smile. "I... I just miss it all."
The Enforcer sighed and looked out of the window, leaning back into his chair. "Trust me: I feel the same."