Psycho-Pass: Muse Division


Author's Note: This came out a lot faster than I expected. Whoops.

I have no idea what I'm doing anymore.

Sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride?

Disclaimers: I own absolutely nada.


Red eyes scanned around the corridor, several Inspectors from different department paused for a moment to look at her with an expression filled with slight disgust. She sent a glare back and smirked when they looked away and scurried off.

Nico opened the doors leading to her division and looked around scowling as the only person there was the one person she didn't really want to see.

"Where's Ayase and Sonoda?"

Amethyst eyes glanced up from the Holo screen and fingers that were typing on the keyboard paused for a second before continuing again. "Inspector Sonoda is off duty for today and Inspector Ayase is doing a patrol with Hoshizora."

Footsteps inched closer and Maki could feel Nico's presence behind her. Before she could say anything else, Nico grabbed her roughly by the arm and dragged her away from the desk.

"Then you'll have to do!" Nico grumbled as she dragged the young Inspector out of the office and down the hallway. Several other Inspectors looking with confusion only to scatter away when red eyes narrowed at their directions.

"H-hey! Let go of me! I still have a report to write!" Maki tried to wrestle her arm out of the smaller girl's grip, but strangely enough Nico had a really iron grip. "Where are you taking me?" Nico only ignored her questions.

The Enforcer dragged the Inspector to the parking lot and paused, looking around. "Which one is your car?" She asked finally letting go of Maki's arm.

Maki rubbed her arm that was obviously going to bruise now because of the small Enforcer's grip. She frowned, "It's that one over there." She pointed at the small cop car that was parked in the corner. Nico grinned, skipping towards the passenger side and looked at Maki with an expecting expression. "Hurry up and unlock it, slowpoke!"

"What the heck...I don't get this..." Maki mumbled as she pulled out her keys and unlocked the door.

She didn't understand what the heck was going on at all. One moment she was writing a report and the next she was being dragged around by a pint-size Enforcer going to wherever sort of address that said Enforcer entered into her Navi. Maki decided to glance over to the Navi and raised an eyebrow as she recognized the address.

"We're going to the Rehabilitation center?" Maki questioned, slapping Nico's hand away from the radio dial.

Nico shook her hand after it being slapped and let out a childish pout, drumming her fingers on the armrest. "Yeah, just gonna go visit someone there."

"Why did you bugged me then? You could have just went by yourse-" Maki stopped suddenly feeling stupid for forgetting one simple fact.

"I'm only allowed to go out if an Inspector is with me." Nico looked out at the window with a bitter smile. Maki glanced at the girl, feeling her heart drop for a moment before her eyes going back to the road. "S-Sorry...that was stupid of me to say..."

"It's fine. I mean I'm such a dangerous badass, of course I'm going to need someone to keep an eye on me or else I'll do something awesome." The Enforcer said with a laugh and Maki rolled her eyes, a smile crossing her face. "Yeah yeah. Whatever you say."

"So why did you join the MWPSB?" Nico asked curiously as her eyes wander back out the window again, the scenery blurring by. The red-head stared long and hard down the road, chewing on her bottom lip lightly. "I guess I felt like it was something only I could do..."

"Something only you can do?"

Nico shifted from her seat and stared at Maki. The burning red eyes piercing at the younger Inspector causing her to shiver slightly at the intensity.

"It's difficult to explain..." Maki spoke quietly hopefully Nico would just leave it alone. She sighed silently in relief when Nico only grunted and went back to looking out the window. The rest of the car-ride was filled with an awkward silence until they finally reached the Center.

Maki parked the car and followed after Nico who skipped off to the front desk only to be stopped by a drone. "Excuse me, Miss. Your hue is very cloudy."

"Yeah yeah, I know. I'm an Enforcer with my Inspector babysitter. So let me through, you overgrown toaster." Nico growled in annoyance shoving her badge for the drone to scan.

"Please have the Inspector accompanying you verify their identification."

"Ah jeeeeez!" Nico whined and gave Maki a pleading look almost like a puppy asking to be let inside. Maki had to bite back a laughter at that look and she produced her badge to the drone to scan. "Thank you, Inspector Nishikino Maki." The drone whirled around and stroll off.

"Thank you, Inspector Nishikino Maki." Nico said in a mocking voice. "As always for me it's always 'Where's your inspector?' and for others it's 'Thanks for keeping that animal leashed.'"

The red-headed Inspector twirled a lock of hair not sure how to reply to that and just stared around at the glass pane that separated the two from the people inside of it. Some of them looked overly tired and others just looked really angry. Maki flinched back as one of them from behind the pane threw the chair from inside screaming to be let out. Several men came into his room to subdue him.

"Here we are." Nico said apparently not at all affected by the scene that just happened. She showed her badge to the guard drone that was standing in front of a door and Maki did the same.

They entered the room into another corridor before finally reaching their destination.

The nameplate had in bold letters: Osaka Shizuku

"That name..." Maki recalled the name. It was the hostage that Nico and Maki saved just the other day.

Nico opened the door and walked in, Maki following close by. "Oi, Osaka-san! How are you?" Nico asked in a singsong voice.

The young girl Shizuku looked way better than when they have first met her, of course she was a total mess after being taken hostage, beaten, and almost blown up. Now she was sitting on the bed, reading a book with a calm serene expression. When they have entered the room, she looked up and gave a bright smile at the two. "Oh! Yazawa-san! Nishikino-san!" She jumped off of the bed and gesture towards the small table. "Please sit down! I'll make some tea, it's not very good tea though."

"It's fine, the Rehabilitation Center isn't known for their tea anyways." Nico said taking a seat, gesturing for Maki to sit down also. Maki followed suit and sat down stiffly, playing with her hair.

"So how's the therapy going so far, Osaka-san?" Nico asked, her voice sounding very much like a caring older sister.

Shizuku took a seat across from them pouring the tea and offering each one a cup. "It's going fine, the therapist said that my hue is clearing up and I should be able to be released back home soon enough."

"That's good. Honoka would be glad to hear that." Nico said blowing into the cup and taking a sip, grimacing from the taste of the cheap flavor. "You're lucky that we were able to get you some rehabilitation before your hue permanently darken."

Shizuku bowed her head towards Nico, "Yes...I am truly fortunate, my parents would be so glad that I wouldn't be labeled a latent criminal." She gasped suddenly and snapped her head up apologetically. "Oh no. I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like tha-"

"It's fine, it's fine. Jeez, we need to make some sort of petition for the Rehabilitation Center to give the patient less crappy tea. Don't you think, Nishikino?" Nico said diverting the topic.

"Huh? O-oh...uh yeah..." Maki mumbled, nodding numbly.

They chatted for a little longer, after they finished the tea they waved goodbye and left.

As they walked down the hall in silence, Nico suddenly spoke up. "Nishikino, how's your parents?"

"B-bueh?" The question caught Maki off guard, but she straighten up again and relaxed, "Well...my father is a business man who just recently left for work overseas and my mother is actually a doctor here in this Center. She doesn't have a shift today though."

"Ah. Hmm."

Silence once again filled the air.

"W-what about you, Yazawa?" Maki asked slowly as if afraid she was threading on thin ice.

Ruby red eyes looked ahead with no emotions, "I had a dad. He died though. As for my mom. I dunno, haven't contacted her ever since I was labeled as a latent criminal."

"Oh..." Maki felt liked she just cracked the thin ice and landed into the cold water. Her heart feeling heavy and filled with sadness for the Enforcer.

Nico shrugged walking ahead. "It doesn't matter though, I'm sure my dad would be proud his little girl is kicking ass and-buwah!" Nico bumped into someone, landing face first on something soft and marshmallow-y. She quickly backed up and blushed, realizing that she just faceplanted into someone's breasts.

"Oh my. Are you alright?" The woman asked with a giggle.

"I-I'm fine. Sorry about that I should have watched where I was going." Nico said suddenly avoiding eye contact with the woman.

The woman smiled and walked by Nico and Maki, her green eyes twinkling in amusement. "It's alright, please be more careful in the future though..."

Maki looked back at the woman, her long purple hair flowing as she walked. "Wow...she's really pretty..." She looked back at Nico and raised an eyebrow.

Nico stood there with a strange unknown expression on her face, her fist clenching tightly. "Yazawa...are you alright?" Maki asked putting a hand on the Enforcer's shoulder causing her to snap her head up to attention. "Y-Yeah...we should go." Nico said softly, brushing Maki's hand off her shoulder, and started walking ahead. "Since you accompanied the Great Nico, I guess I should reward you." She said with her head held up high and Maki snorted, rolling her eyes at this.

"You doing anything for dinner?"

"E-eh?" Maki almost tripped at this. "W-what?"

Nico looked back at Maki with a smug expression seeing the Inspector almost tripping, "I'm inviting you over for dinner, if you want of course. I can't really take you out or anything, but I can make something that would make your taste-buds sing."

Maki felt her face flush at this and avoided looking at Nico. "I-I guess since I don't really have anything to do...I could...come over..." She mentally cursed as she could feel the tip of her ears burn red with embarrassment.

"Alright, it's a date then!"

"D-date?!"

"Now drive me home!" Nico walked off in a brisk pace, her eyes narrowing slightly as the image of the purple haired woman entered her mind. She squeezed her arm lightly remembering how all her senses went off when she looked into those green eyes. Nico shook her head slightly.

It was probably nothing.

She hoped.


Fingers drummed at the desk impatiently, cool blue eyes piercing at the meek woman who was sitting in front of the many Holo screens and furiously typing as fast as her fingers can. She repeatedly mumbled out apologies as time went by and that only further annoyed the blonde-haired Inspector.

"Inspector Ayase! Stop scaring Kayo-chin! She can't work with you glaring with such a scary expression like that!" Rin spoke out, pulling the edge of her eyelids to mockingly show how Eli's expression was. Eli sighed and looked away, "Fine fine. Sorry about that, Koizumi."

"I-It's alright..." Hanayo squeaked as her hands began to shake. She slowly reached for a small case full of pills, popping several in her mouth before guzzling down the water from her water bottle. She let out a sigh as her hands slowly stop shaking, her typing resuming once again in a more fast steady pace.

"I have been looking through all the surveillance of Kaminaga-san. But he have had no contact with anyone in his apartment nor does his cell phone records show that he have contacted anyone at all these past few months save for food delivery services."

Eli looked at the Holo screens, the screens filled with Shinjirou's profile and his cell phone record which was completely clean. "That is strange..." She scratched the top of her head and sighed. "How does a simple clerk with no prior background suddenly get flagged for a cloudy hue and was in possession of a bomb?" Eli bit her thumb trying to connect any dots to no avail.

"Have you gotten anything about the bomb?"

Hanayo looked at Eli and typed several things, pulling up the files of the bomb. "Since Nico-chan was able to send me a scan of the bomb before it blew up, I've been doing some research on it." Several pictures popped up.

"It isn't any factory made bomb, but there was something odd about it."

"What, Kayo-chin? What?" Rin asked excitedly, bouncing up and down behind Hanayo's seat. Hanayo took off her glasses and rubbed her eyes, dark circles forming under it from the lack of sleep. "I'm not sure just yet. But all I know is that there is something odd about it..."

"This whole case is odd." Eli sighed.

"I-I'm sorry. I'll try and solve this as soon as possible!"

Eli turned around and walked towards the exit of the Analyst Lab. "It's fine, just don't overwork yourself, Koizumi." The door opened and she left the room.

The orange-haired Enforcer looked at Hanayo who was sighing, feeling utterly useless. Without saying a word, Rin wrapped her arms around Hanayo. She rested her chin on the other girl's shoulder, "It's okay, Kayo-chin." she whispered softly.

Hanayo smiled, leaning into the embrace of Rin's. She wrapped her fingers around Rin's arm. "I know. I'm fine. As long as you're here..."

They stayed like that silently, just the comfort of each other presence calming the both of them before...

"WARNING: A Latent Criminal has been spotted. Muse Division is to be on the scene immediately."

Rin released Hanayo, who sighed already missing the contact. "Looks like it's time for work, nyah."

Hanayo smiled softly and waved, "Good luck, Rin-chan. Be safe." With a cat-like grin, Rin saluted playfully before running out of the lab.

Rin ran down the hall, ignoring the looks from everyone she ran by before taking notice of a familiar person. "Nyah!" She pounced, jumping on the person's back causing them to both tumble down.

"What the heck, Rin?!" Nico groaned, picking herself off the ground. Rin grinned, clinging to Nico like a koala. "Nico-chan! I bet I'm going to catch this guy before you!"

"Are you trying to start a fight?"

"Nico-chan can never beat me though!"

"I can still shoot you."

"That's cheating, nyah!"

Maki rolled her eyes as Nico continued to walk off with Rin clinging onto her back like a small child. "Come on. Let's go."

They finally arrived at the scene, Eli already there looking through the files given to her by a nearby drone. Maki saluted at Eli, "Inspector Ayase! Inspector Nishikino Maki is here!" Eli glanced up and nodded towards her. "Nishikino."

She pulled up the files on her Holo and sent it to the Inspector and the two Enforcers. "The target is Imagawa Kai. He was scanned by a drone, but before he could even be approached, he disappeared in the mall. He might not even be aware that his hue is cloudy so proceed with caution."

"Hoshizora. You'll be with Nishikino. Yazawa, you're with me."

"Aye aye, captain!" Rin saluted and grabbed Maki, dragging her off. "O-Oi! What the heck is with everyone dragging me awaaaaaaaaaaay..." Maki's voice of protest slowly died off as she was dragged off into the mall leaving Eli and Nico alone.

"Well then. Shall we, Yazawa?" Eli asked as she hoisted the Dominator, Nico copying Eli while rolling her eyes. "We shall, Ayase."

The mall was crawling with so many people, it was obviously difficult to pick out one guy from all of them. Eli and Nico were on the second floor, the blonde Inspector scanning the crowd trying to find their target. Nico glanced left and right almost lazily, looking at the screen of her Communication Holo. "What sort of crappy drone takes a crappy picture like this?" Nico whined, the screen showing a horridly blurred picture of their target.

"The mall's drones are out of date and haven't been upgraded to the newer models yet with more precise sharpened images." Eli answered still looking down at the crowd. She could barely make out Rin and Maki who were scouring around the ground floor.

Nico leaned on the railing next to Eli, she held her hand over her forehead and looked around."As if we can find the guy with such little information..."

She paused for a bit and then pressed at her ear piece. "Rin. Over at the Art Exhibitions!"

"You see him?" Eli asked a slight amazed expression crossing her face.

Nico broke off into a run heading towards the escalator, a smirk gracing her face. "Of course. A hunting dog can always smell their prey."

Rin nodded after hearing the location from Nico and looked at Maki. "Over at the Art Exhibitions."

The two ran off heading towards the Art Exhibitions. It was empty except for a few people that loitered around not even really paying attention to any of the artworks. Maki glanced around shivering slightly at the paintings before her. The walls were lined with gruesome paintings of corpses and other frightening looking things. "T-This is art?"

"It's the artwork of a famous killer. Everytime he killed someone he'd paint a picture of the scene. It's not surprising that some art gallery actually host such pictures, nyah..." Rin said softly as she turned a corner, her eyes lighting up like a cat who just found it's prey. "I see him."

Maki glanced at the man that just stared numbly at a painting of a hung woman whose body were burning. "How do you know it's him?"

Rin grinned in reply, "He smells kinda like me." she motioned Maki to stay there and slowly approached the target.

"Hello, nyahhh!" Rin said cheerfully. The man glanced down at the girl with a solemn look and then back at the painting. "Do you know about the story of this painting?" The man finally said after a moment of silence.

Amber eyes flickered over the the painting, "Uhn...it's about how a woman who was in love with another man. But the man was already engaged to another woman. So she ran away and met a painter."

"The painter comforted the woman, but what the woman didn't know was that he was a killer." Kai continued after Rin, his voice slowly choking back a sob.

"He slit her throat...hung her, set her body on fire, and painted the picture as she burned..." Rin said in a soft low voice. Kai looked back at Rin and smiled, "You are knowledgeable for someone so young. But...do you know the story about the man she was in love with?" Rin shook her head.

"The man and the woman were actually childhood friends. When they were young, they promised each other that they would go off together and get married. But the man was forced to wed another woman." He stopped talking and stared into Rin's eyes, almost as if he was peering into her soul "Do you know how painful it is to lose someone precious to you without even realizing it? The pain the man felt as his childhood friend was brutally murdered because of him?"

"You were the woman's..." Rin finally placed the pieces back together and Kai continued smiling softly.

"And you're with the MWPSB, aren't you?" He sighed, his eyes looking back at the painting. "I should have figured. My hue was getting worse and worse...my mind being clouded with regret..." He laughed bitterly, "Until one day...my wife came home...told me to stop wallowing in my self pity. Get on with my life...stop thinking about that useless whore."

"I never really loved her..." Kai reached for his pocket and Rin's eyes widen.

A silver flash swung at her neck. Blood dripping down the knife that Kai now held. "So before I knew it...I slashed her neck just like that..."

Rin fell.

"HOSHIZORA!"


Omake:

Nico landed on soft marshmallow-y breasts. "Did I just landed on clouds? Am I in heaven?"

"What the hell, Yazawa?" Maki fumed angrily.

"My my...is this a pick-up line? How cute." The woman smiled and walked away, "You should be more careful next time, cutie."

Nico stood there silently, she reached for her pockets, and gasped.

"WHAT THE HECK? WHERE'S MY WALLET?!"

As she rounded the corner, green eyes twinkled mischievously as she held between her fingers a wallet.


Author's Rambling: I did not plan on stopping at a cliffhanger. But I almost reached past the mark I was planning on so I cut the ending and will probably finish it in the next chapter.

I always wanted to write something full of mysteries. Am I doing good? Are you scratching your heads trying to put the pieces together?

No? You already figured it out? Dammit.

Typical shippings are typical. But don't worry, there will be enough interactions between all of them...hopefully.

If you enjoyed the fic so far feel free to drop a review, criticism, your undying love to me. Or all three! What? No love? Okay fine. I don't need it anyways.

But seriously, I hope this put you at the edge of your seats.


RRWhitey signing out!