Summary: "Whether you're beaten or pampered, fed the best foods or starved, kept in filth or kept clean, a cage is still a cage."―Anne Bishop. In her eyes, she'd forever be locked in her cage. Like a good little bird, she'd sit in that cage and awaited her death, because she knew she couldn't escape. She could not face her fears. She did not wish to experience the suffering of fighting it...
Favorite, Follow, and review this story please!
The Rating may go up later if I decide to make this a little darker or have a sum sum somewhere in here. Please enjoy!
DISCLAIMER: All characters belonging to Collar x Malice are not mine.
"Kazuki!"
Awe shit... Here we go...
"What!"
They're like cats and dogs. She thought as she slowly entered her cousin's apartment. Every morning was similar to the scene that was unfolding before her. Around the time she would arrive to pick up her cousin, Ichika, she and her younger brother, Kazuki, would be arguing about something or Ichika would simply be nagging the boy.
"Where were you last night? You didn't text me or give me a call." Ichika frowned, "It's dangerous to be out and about at night!"
"I texted Kotori..." The teen grumbled before he glanced at the woman who slowly emerged from the hall into the kitchen.
Now the two sibling's gazes turned from each other to the woman with turquois hair.
Sigh... Will they never fix their relationship? Kotori couldn't help but think as she closed her eyes in defeat, reopening them to meet Ichika's gaze, "He did text me when he left and when he arrived home. He was at Akito's place, okay? I already gave them a call and everything so no more fighting." She stated softly as she raised her hands a bit in defeat. "We'll be late for work if you continue."
That seemed to have done the trick. Immediately Ichika shrieked a bit surprised before she gathered her things quickly. "Ah, Kazuki, I won't be making excuses for you forever... So, know that at some point you're going to have to tell Ichika..." She whispered before kissing the top of her younger cousin's nose.
"H-Hey...!" The boy hissed with a blush on his cheeks.
"Be good, Kazuki~" The woman smiled before she walked out of the apartment, "I'll be waiting for you downstairs, Ichika! Don't waste more time!"
Ichika and Kazuki Hoshino were her dearest cousins. Until that year, she had never wanted them to fix their relationship so badly. The reason being, at any moment any of them could become a victim of murder.
On April 1st, a video was posted and played on the giant screens facing the Shinjuku train station. At the time, no one knew what that video would cause in their city. The video showed some people, appearing to be police officers, tied up in chairs.
"In order to restore tainted Japan to health, the countdown to X-Day will now begin. Our objective is simple. Purge the corruption from this land, and make Shinjuku the site of its rebirth. If you are afraid, then leave this land. We will not be stopped. But know this; No matter where you are, you will be judged. There are no exceptions. We will resurrect truth in this world. No longer will only the weak be persecuted."
Those words, ominous and cold, struck many people's hearts with fear, and others with a newly lit fire. But for the police, they didn't focus on the words... All they saw were their fellow policemen in possible danger. So, the police began to work frantically to trace the broadcast in hopes to find and save their comrades. Mostly to save face, in Kotori's opinion... It was then that prior to the broadcast, a number of officers had disappeared and reported missing. The transmission's origin and the officers were never found, and before they knew it, May arrived. By then, the public either forgot the video or assumed it was an ill-conceived prank. Another video was uploaded with the bound officers from April's video.
"Thank you for waiting, everybody. The time for judgement is at hand. As we mentioned before, the people here are criminals. In order to cure Japan, such people must be exterminated. Judgement has been passed as a preview of X-Day. This is not the end. Henceforth, we will continue to mete out justice to aid our nation's rebirth. Our name is... Adonis... Hear me well, listeners. Make sure that you remember this name, okay? May this world become a paradise~!"
The voice stopped, and suddenly gunshots rang out, and the police officers were shot, much to the onlookers' surprise and horror.
The police traced the video not long after the broadcast, to an abandoned building and confirmed one officer's death. However, other officers' bloodstains were found. The criminals' trail, and the missing officers' whereabouts are still unknown. No one knew until then, the video was no prank, it was becoming a new reality for them. The incident began a chain of heinous crimes that continued into June, July, and August, and the number of victims rose. Public scrutiny of the police grew harsh as time passed and police efforts were fruitless.
"I'm sorry! I couldn't find my phone!"
Pulled away from her thoughts, Kotori turned towards her cousin with a smile, "Don't worry too much about it, Ichika. Next time just have everything ready the night before." She stated lightly before the two began to walk to work. Neither one said a word, and Kotori easily drifted back to her earlier train of thought.
At every crime scene a Roman numeral indicating a countdown and a unique coin believed difficult to counterfeit were always found Markings on the coin lead some to believe that the once-dismantled terrorist organization known as Adonis had been reborn.
Then, September 1st, exasperated by the repeated incidents, the government took extreme measures for the sake of public safety. The Shinjuku Quarantine Act. This, intended to trap the criminals within the borders of Shinjuku, obviously drew the wrath of the public. Demonstrations bordering on riots broke out, but the government suppressed these, and stated that it was for Shinjuku's safety. The government did not stop there. It also adopted unprecedented extralegal measures. Repeal of the Swords and Firearms Control Law. To provide citizens a means of defense, firearms were provided to all people over the age of 20 within Shinjuku. It was all under the pretext of self-defense. The firearms and ammo were all coded, in order to quickly determine a shooter's identity whenever a weapon was discharged.
"The criminals have guns, so the people should be given equal access to equal arms."
Such bullshit... Kotori was one of the few within the police that voiced their outrage with such a law. Giving firearms to untrained and frightened citizens would cause more harm than good.
"Thus, as an extralegal measure, the residents of Shinjuku district exclusively have an obligation to carry firearms."
The law, ratified behind closed doors, was suddenly announced to the public. The police had to obey the governments' mandate, and the unrest of the citizens trapped within Shinjuku swelled. Though upset, one could say that the citizens were now better suited to survive other incidents.
There were so many holes in their plan, even Kotori could see that. But even so...
"Kotori, are you okay?" Ichika asked, breaking the woman from her thoughts again.
"Oh? Yeah, I'm fine. I didn't get enough sleep last night so I was just lost in thought for a second." Kotori smiled softly before the two crossed the street.
"It must be hard, being a detective and all..." Ichika murmured softly, almost sadly.
Kotori let out a short laugh before shaking her head. "Because I'm a woman, they don't have me doing much else besides helping Forensics and one of the Field Operations Support. I do get to go out from time to time when there is a murder, but I'd rather be doing those menial tasks than looking at the dead bodies." She stated softly. "Honestly, as crazy as it sounds, I'd much rather have your job, Ichika..."
At this, her cousin looked at her with surprise.
"I've always wanted to help people, to catch the bad guys so no one could ever feel sadness ever again. I have so many mixed feelings about Adonis, I'm pretty unsuited to be on it..." Kotori admitted before the two began to walk up to their building. "Well, I'm off, I'll see you later, Ichika~" She smiled before rushing off into the building and slipping into one of the elevators.
"Oh, lookie here~ The little bird found me~"
It's too early for your shit...
"Shiraishi... Shouldn't you be with Mukai or something?" Kotori asked softly as icey blue colored eyes glared at the taller man beside her, who evidently, was holding the door to the elevator so it would remain open.
"Actually, I'm heading out to their place. And you need to tag along~" He smirked down at her as he reached out and poked her nose, "Be an obedient little bird and follow me?"
"Why would I do something like that?" She asked with her irritation evidentally growing.
"Because it involves X-Day... Something came up..." Shiraishi whispered as he leaned down near her ear. Something in his usually whimsical tone was different. That was the only reason she let out a sigh.
"... Lead the way, Shiraishi." She stated before the man smirked even wider and walked off the elevator, knowing Kotori would follow after him. Until recently, their interactions were exclusively to work, however now they spent a bit more time around each other because of their side job.
-Two Months Ago-
October 7th...
Shiraishi was leading Kotori and some other gentlemen to a meeting with two ex-cops.
I wonder what kind of people these two are... It better be worth it... I had to skip our meeting place this morning for this shit... Kotori thought softly before the three of them came up to the door. Shiraishi, being the only one in the group to know at least one person behind the door, knocked to announce their presence. Though, the ever-so-impatient man already opened the door before anyone on the other side could answer it.
"Hey. It's been a while, Yanagi." Shiraishi grinned.
"We just met last week..." The man, Yanagi, stated. His hair was black and unruly. His eyes were cold lilac. He looked like he was carrying a lot of baggage.
"Oh, was that when it was?" Shiraishi asked, confused. He gently scratched the side of his head.
"Yes. That's when we decided to meet here. Without that meeting, you wouldn't be here today."
Shiraishi laughed, "Haha, that's true. Thankfully, I've been busy with work. Guess I just lost track of time!" He grinned happily, his hand dropping to his side.
"Liar." Kotori whispered harshly in annoyance before she turned away.
"By 'work', I'm assuming you've just found some new hobby entirely unrelated to work, right?" Yanagi asked.
At least the man knows!
"Yes. That's exactly what I mean."
Don't say it like it's a good thing!
"Anyway, you're here. And I assume that you are Takeru Sasazuka and Kotori Akagawa?" Yanagi then turned his attention to the one's behind the long-haired blonde.
"Hi." Sasazuka stated with arms crossed over his chest. The man looked pretty young to Kotori, but she heard of his skills from her former partners, and she chose not to say anything to him. He had a way with words... His hair was just as unruly and messy as Yanagi's, maybe even more so, and his eyes reminded her of rubies. They were actually really pretty, despite them being so cold.
Kotori simply nodded a bit as she set a hand on her hip. She was rather young herself, she had to admit but she was actually only a year younger than Sasazuka.
As soon as Yanagi finished scanning the two younger adults behind Shiraishi, everyone turned their attention to Enomoto, who after introducing himself, was being toyed with by none-other-than Shiraishi. It was pretty pitiful to see, so Kotori opted to just ignore it. She scanned the area before her eyes drifted to the next room. There were two beds that she could see. One was clearly neater than the other which indicated one of them was severely messy or had just recently woken up. It wouldn't take a genius to know that, or to know that Enomoto was probably the culprit.
Enomoto had wine red hair that was wavy and messy, which had made Kotori start think that all these men needed a hair brush, and bright gold eyes. But for some reason, it was like they were darkened by something. His past.
She was suddenly pulled from her thoughts when Yanagi broke up the fight that seemed to have broken out between Enomoto and Sasazuka.
"I'm Aiji Yanagi. Formerly of Section 1. I'd like you both to properly introduce yourselves, as well." Yanagi stated as he looked between Sasazuka and Kotori.
But it seemed Sasazuka had a response for that, that wasn't the answer Yanagi wanted. "You already know who I am... Rather, I mean, I haven't decided whether I'll be helping you. It's not gonna work if this guy's here. We'll get nowhere." Everyone didn't need to follow his glare to know who he was referring to.
"Me!?" Enomoto sounded offended. She almost felt bad.
"Who else could I be talking about?" Sasazuka stated harshly.
"Oh, are you sure you don't want to team up? If Yanagi's team doesn't work with us, then you won't get any new intel." Shiraishi said, as if trying to coax the man as one would coax a child.
Looks like he got the man...
Sasazuka looked away, "It's not like... I mean, that's a separate issue..." He grumbled a bit begrudgingly.
"What about you, Kotori?" Shiraishi asked as he grinned down at the woman who had been silent since they left the station. "Why don't you introduce yourself?"
Kotori gave Shiraishi a look before she sighed, "... My name is Kotori Akagawa, I'm a part of Investigations that is currently stationed here in Shinjuku. I haven't really made a final decision yet, but I think introducing myself anyways is politer than behaving like a brat." She stated before glancing at the hacker.
"What did you say?" Sasazuka stated.
But Kotori remained quiet.
"The birdy likes to say what's on her mind without a filter. Don't mind her." Shiraishi stated.
"Sasazuka, Akagawa... Enomoto and I are here because we're investigating the X-Day crimes happening in Shinjuku. All of our goals might be slightly different, but our determination to solve this is real. You know as well as I do that there's only so much you can accomplish investigating this on your own after you cut ties with the police. But we still want to do what we can. We'll leave no stone unturned in our efforts."
Pretty words... But I would need to see the actions to believe them. Otherwise they're just empty, pretty words...
"I just like solving mysteries, but solving these mysteries should also stop the crimes." Shiraishi piped up with a smile, "My passion for the job is plenty genuine, FYI."
"Wow, that's so fishy~" Enomoto stated.
"Glad someone else can smell his bullshit just like I can." Kotori stated.
"How rude. I'm serious about my intent to solve this at any cost." Shiraishi defended with a pout.
"I wonder about that." Kotori grumbled.
"But wait, you're both still working for the police. Are you sure you're okay with helping us out?" Enomoto asked suddenly.
"What's the problem? I'm good enough to not get caught, and even if I do, you'll go down with me." Shiraishi smirked.
"So, you're already planning to sell us out!?" Enomoto said shocked. His expression was a bit funny.
The profiler smirked before laughing, "Haha, let's back burner that question."
"You can't really put that on hold! Is this guy really your friend, Yanagi?" Enomoto murmured.
"So, what about you, Enoki? Why are you looking into the X-Day cases?" Shiraishi asked.
Kotori sighed, "If you're going to ask him a question, the least you can do is call him by his actual name, catnip-for-brains."
"Yeah! It's not Enoki! It's Eno-mo-to!"
"Yet another topic I think we can shelve."
This man plays too much.
Losing interest in the conversation quickly, Kotori moved from her spot over to the bookshelf and looked at the spines of the books. There were a few different genre's that she noticed while simultaneously taking in the necessary information from the men's conversation. It seemed that she was quiet enough that her presence could go about unnoticed for the time being. Every one of them seemed to have some sort of reason for being there...
Except her.
-Present-
In the end, she ended up joining their little group and successfully avoiding any questions that were asked about her motivations.
As they neared the building Yanagi and the others of their group were at, someone with white hair and pale purple eyes suddenly came up to them with their own signature smile on his face.
"Okazaki..." Kotori smiled a bit back. When the man and his partner first showed up, she, like the rest of the men, were very wary about him. They all had a good idea as to why he was set to watch them, but nothing could be done about it. Eventually he became part of their routine when they showed up to the office. If he wasn't there to show his face at least once, they'd all feel it would be off and become suspicous.
"Akagawa! Shiraishi! Good morning~ You're here awfully early, aren't you?" Okazaki asked with a smile that looked so warming and kind. It made Kotori not trust him in the first place.
"Are we not allowed to come by so early?" Shiraishi smiled at the man before he walked past him, Kotori following after him. But, Kotori didn't get too far.
Okazaki grabbed her hand, "You should really let me treat you to breakfast, Akagawa." He insisted happily, "We can go now, if you'd like?" He was a pushy person, and it reminded her of a child trying to get the attention of their parent.
"Not today. Tomorrow is fine with me. But instead of breakfast, what about lunch?" Akagawa stated with a smile of her own. "I walk my cousin to work every morning just for her own protection, it makes me feel at ease that way, but having lunch with someone will also help my nerves. Is that alright with you?" She tilted her head.
Shiraishi watched the interaction silently, a grin on his lips.
It seemed that Kotori was very good at keeping up with Okazaki's rhythm, and always knew how to deal with him. It was convenient for anyone with her since she seemed very capable of adapting to a situation of any kind, very quickly.
"That sounds great!" Okazaki smiled before he released her hand. "It's a date then~"
"Mhm~ See you then, Okazaki. Please try to sleep in a proper bed." Kotori smiled before she moved away from him and left with Shiraishi, disappearing into the building.
When the two were walking up the steps Shiraishi smirked down at her, "You seem to like Okazaki." He stated as he was attempting to tease her. "You always seem way too willing to go along with him."
"It's not a matter of willing, I just find it exhausting to argue with him, so I'd rather save the energy and at least make the situation easier on myself by going along with his antics..." Kotori sighed, "Plus, he reminds me of my older brother in a way. And in the end, I get free food." She shrugged as she moved past Shiraishi and to the Office door. "He's the one who asked me out, so he's paying for me." She added as she walked into the office. She was met with Enomoto, who was always there, and Sasazuka, who seemed to have had just gotten there before Shiraishi and her.
"Akagawa! Good morning~" Enomoto smiled before he saw Shiraishi enter the room, "Oh... Shiraishi is with you."
"How rude of you, Enoki~" Shiraishi grinned.
"ENO-MO-TO!"
"Sounds like Okazaki roped you into another date of some sort." Sasazuka said lightly from his computer.
Kotori nodded a bit before she took off her coat and set it on the coat rack.
"I don't understand why you don't just blow him off..."
"Then I wouldn't get free food." Kotori chuckled before she sat at the couch. "We're not here to talk about my way of getting free stuff, Shiraishi said something new came up about the X-Day cases. It concerns all of us." She stated as she looked at Shiraishi for an explanation.
With all eyes on the profiler, the man grinned, "Oh, yes..." Most may not have noticed, by Kotori could see his smile was a bit... Stronger? It was the best way she could describe it as he lifted up an envelope. "I found this in my office this morning when I came in." He stated as he handed the envelope to Kotori. He watched her examine the object in her hand before she stopped on the seal.
"An Anemone flower..." Kotori whispered as her fingers gently, an unreadable look in her eyes, before she gently lifted the seal, trying to preserve it as she made sure to open the envelope with extra care, and looked inside. She looked at the letter a bit warily before she took it out and looked down at the paper.
"So... It's a letter from Adonis." Sasazuka stated as he crossed his arms over his chest. "What does it say?"
Kotori unfolded the envelope and read the letter to the other three in the room;
"As part of the countdown to X-Day, a woman will be killed by poison in Shinjuku Garden on December 6th, 00:00." Then a sequence of numbers was on the bottom of the paper. It looks like a password or something... She thought. "There is only one way to save her. You must enter the unlock code given below into the collar the woman is wearing. Furthermore, if the police are notified, we will immediately kill the woman. Even if you are to save the woman, you are not to speak of the collar. We will be monitoring your actions through the collar. Should you violate any of these terms, you will be placing her life in jeopardy. Heed this warning well."
The room was silent as everyone allowed the words that had just left Kotori's lips sink in. There was going to be another murder...
Kotori broke the silence by putting the letter back into the envelope and setting it on the coffee table. She didn't say anything at first as the men stared at her as she laid on the couch. "We have to wait for Yanagi to get here, then we can discuss how we can move forward with this..." She ignored the feeling of someone staring at her as she grabbed a lock of her curly hair and twirled it in her hand.
About an hour had passed before the door opened, "Shiraishi...?"
Kotori looked up from her spot on the couch to look at Yanagi, who was staring at Shiraishi in confusion. "We've been waiting for you to get here, Yanagi." She stated as she slowly sat up.
"Akagawa? You too? What are you both doing here?" Yanagi asked.
The two didn't really answer, as if figuring out how to say the next words, but then Sasazuka spoke up.
"Who'd have thought they would make contact?"
"What do you mean? What happened?" Yanagi asked, now a bit more alert.
Enomoto spoke next, "Nothing actually happened, just..." He trailed off.
"It's be faster if you looked at this." Shiraishi intervened as Kotori handed him the envelope, then he handed it to Yanagi.
Everyone watched in silence as Yanagi opened the already unsealed envelope, the surprise as he looked at the seal, then the urgency in his eyes as he read what the words were on the letter. "This is..." His sentence trailed off as he handed the paper to Sasazuka to look at, who then handed it to Enomoto.
"It's a heads-up from Adonis..." Kotori stated as she looked at the man. "They are giving us the time, place, and means to save this woman from death... Meaning, they want us to find her before that happens. Ultimately that's they're goal... As a whole, it sounds like they're testing us." She added.
Everyone looked at her.
"Wouldn't it make more sense that this is a trap and not them giving us a chance to save someone before they are killed? Or that they're taunting us?" Enomoto asked.
Sasazuka didn't say anything, but looked at Kotori a bit expectantly.
"What makes you say that, Akagawa?" Yanagi asked as he looked at the woman with wonder.
"Yes, exactly what made you come to that conclusion, little birdy?" Shiraishi cooed as he sat on the armrest of the other couch that faced her.
Kotori looked at all of them before she looked at the envelope, "Well for one, we've never given Adonis a reason to taunt us. If anyone should be taunted it's the police, I mean—if their goal is to shame the police, which I doubt. And if that were the case, they wouldn't be instructing us to keep them out of this. If we're all going to be honest, Adonis is as elusive as smoke. They wouldn't need a trap of any sort to kill us or capture us. They could do that now without having to lure us out of this room." She said lightly before looking down at the coffee table, "They are also giving us instructions if we were to save her, indicating that they hope we do. That's the test. They're trying to see if we're capable of doing this. For what I can't really think of at the moment. In any event, they seem to take care not to let these types of details fall into someone's hands unless they wanted it to be that way. They say monitor us, like we're an experiment, which only further supports my theory this is a test. It's only a guess, but I think whoever this woman is, is important to the person who sent us this letter. In what way I'm not sure, but it's what I think." She concluded before her eyes lifted to look up to Yanagi, who was staring at her as he took in her reasoning. They were sound and made a lot of sense given the past actions of Adonis. Her eyes then drifted to Sasazuka, who nodded a bit in understanding and agreement, then Enomoto, who was absolutely surprised for a moment before having that serious expression as he let the information sink in. Then finally, Shiraishi.
A shiver went down her spine as she saw Shiraishi's grin widen, almost like she had done something that went beyond his expectations. And she didn't like it.
In any case, it looked like 4 out of the 5 in the room had all come to the same conclusion in their own thought process.
"… Alright. We all need to meet up around an hour before the time on this letter at Shinjuku Garden." Yanagi stated before he turned to Shiraishi and Kotori, "If you two can make it, it would really help." He stated, though the urgency in his eyes was almost begging them to help.
He's desperate to help this woman... Kotori thought as she looked at him with a half-smile, "I get a lot of free time, so I'll more than likely be there, but if I'm not, assume the guys dumped work on me last minute." She stated before looking at Shiraishi.
"I actually have something to attend to in the office so I doubt I'll be able to help you." Shiraishi shrugged. "Anyways, I'm not much of a field player."
"Yeah, you're a side character really." Kotori grumbled.
There were no more words shared as they all thought about how the night would transpire.
Would they be able to save this woman before she was killed for some absurd form of justice?
…
11:57 p.m.
"We found the woman. She's safe."
Kotori gazed at the text message on her phone with light relief before she moved set the last of the files away in the cabinet. She took a deep breath before she thought what would've happened if they hadn't saved that woman. There'd be another X-Day case... Another body to look at... Another family to inform... More suffering...
A scream tore into the air and clawed at her ears.
Kotori froze before she fell to her knees. Her eyes stared at the floor, almost blankly, as her mind had gone elsewhere.
Thankfully, however, someone broke her out of her trance before she could go too deep into the rabbit hole.
"Kotori!" A man called out before their hands grabbed onto her shoulders. "Kotori! What's wrong?"
The woman blinked a few times as she regained her sense of self and looked up to meet silver orbs looking down at her with evident concern. "O-Oh... Yuzuru..." She murmured before she shook her head. "I just... I felt dizzy all of a sudden." She tried to assure but obviously she couldn't convince anyone in her state of mind.
"Were you thinking of that again?" Yuzuru Saeki asked.
The man went through training with her cousin, and became good friends with her. So, they met several times, which eventually lead to them going on a few dates... And eventually they became something that wasn't exactly an official relationship, but both treated it that way. Both of them seemed to have a reason for not wanting to put a label on whatever they had, and for Kotori's case. It terrified her. Not having a label, nor the responsibilities that were entailed in a relationship of that sort, was more comfortable for them.
Kotori bit her lip a bit, before eventually nodding to his question. "Yeah..." She whispered softly as she looked back down onto the floor.
"Maybe it's time for you to go home, Kotori... You've been working all day, and you looked really stressed before." He stated as he slowly helped the woman up to her feet.
"Did I? I didn't even notice..." Kotori hummed before she moved away from him a bit and started to gather her things. She knew Saeki could have been as pushy as Okazaki, so she chose to just do as he suggested. Plus, going home and resting sounded pretty good to her at the moment.
"I'll walk you to the entrance at least." He smiled as he grabbed her bag and walked with her to the main entrance to the building. Since there weren't many people in the building, much less in the halls, Saeki grabbed her hand with his free one and laced their fingers together.
His hand is warm... Kotori thought as she let herself relax at the action. Small affectionate gestures like that were what she enjoyed. She didn't need someone to give her their heart, she was too afraid anyways, so instead—she just found someone who could give her that affection and attention when she needed or wanted it, without it being an obligation.
As they headed for the entrance, they'd have to stop by SRCPO to do so. That was where Ichika worked.
Kotori and Saeki moved towards her cousin, a smile on their faces, before Saeki cooed, "Hoshino~"
"Wah!?"
"Woah!"
Kotori and Saeki jumped back a bit, just as Ichika had, and looked thoroughly taken back by the outburst.
"A-Ah... Saeki, Kotori..." Ichiki looked relieved for a moment then turned to her screen, frantically closing something. That action didn't go unnoticed by Kotori, but she decided against voicing the observation. She could just ask her later. Ichiki turned back to the pair with a weary smiled, "You're both still here?"
"Are we not supposed to be? There was an urgent call earlier, so I got sent out to respond to it. So now I have to write another report. I've been at work this whole time. But Kotori said she was leaving so I decided to walk the lady out at the very least." Saeki smiled lightly.
"My coworkers dumped all their stuff they didn't want to file. I just finished so I'm heading home right now." Kotori explained with a chuckle.
"Really? Long day, huh?" Ichika asked with a look of pity.
Ichika feels so bad for us... Hehe.
"Yeah... Speaking of which, you're still here, too. I thought you left a long time ago..." Saeki pointed out.
"I got caught up in something, too... But it wasn't anything important. I need to write a report on what happened. So, I came back to the station." Ichika sighed lightly, though looked a bit on edge.
Did something happen?
Kotori lifted a brow a bit before she turned to Saeki.
"Sounds like a rough day all around... Sure are a lot of calls today, don't you think? Well, I won't keep you any further. I just thought to say hi, and let Kotori say bye to her cousin before she left." He smiled.
"You two aren't bothering me at all. You actually cheered me up a bit." Ichika smiled happily.
"Well, that's nice of you to say. But, if late nights are taking a toll on you, why not ask Mochida to let you off earlier?" Saeki suggested.
The conversation dragged out a bit, but Kotori thought it was such a nice, mundane thing. It brought her a little more at ease. She gently squeezed the man's hand. His jovial manner always brought her at ease. By the time they left, Ichika and Saeki had been in a mock fight about their weight.
Saeki and Kotori were finally at the Entrance to Shinjuku station and they stood by the door for a bit.
"You should get a lot of rest, Kotori. You cause a lot of concern if you were to collapse at a scene or at work again." Saeki whispered as he looked down at the woman. His thumb gently rubbing the back of her hand. "I'd be very worried too. It's bad for my heart... I don't want to see you with that suffering look on your face..." He stated lightly.
"I know I know..." Kotori murmured before she smiled up at the man. "I'll be more careful now. Thanks for walking me out, Yuzuru." She smiled sheepishly, "You should get back to finish that report." She chuckled before leaning up on her toes.
Saeki smiled himself before he leaned down and met her lips with his own. It was a soft kiss, warm. It only lasted a few seconds before the two pulled away. "I'll see you tomorrow, right?"
"All rested." Kotori smiled before she pulled away from him a bit reluctantly and made her way to her apartment.
By the time she got home, it was 2:00 a.m. and she was absolutely exhausted. As soon as she got into her bed, she passed out beneath her blankets.
Thank you for taking the time to read this fanfiction! I hope you all enjoyed it! Please Follow, Favorite, and Review! Looking forward to the feed back and such~
Love,
Chess.