I've got positive remarks on both tumblr and the reviews for chapter 1. So without keeping any of you waiting here's chapter 2.


Akane

What should be my next move? Unit one's main priority is to locate and retrieve Mr. Ginoza but exactly how can I do that? 'Let's play a game' written in blood is the only clue that we have at the moment. Was the message written with Mr. Ginoza's own blood or that of Dime? If it is with Mr. Ginoza's blood, is there already a chance that he's already dead? No, no Akane don't think like that, he can't be dead, he just can't be. I can't lose my composure, not in front of the enforcers!

So far the forensic bots have found nothing that can help us get any further into locating Mr. Ginoza, Kagari and Ms. Kunizuka have been around the building asking questions to the residence of the complex for anything that could have been suspicious but nothing came of it yet. Mr. Kougami and Mr. Masaoka have been searching Mr. Ginoza's home for anything that could explain how the culprit got inside and how he manage to abduct a man without anyone seeing anything but still nothing.

Here I am just starring at Mr. Ginoza's home; he doesn't have any hologram system in here. Everything is old fashion decorated in nineteenth-twentieth century French Country Provincial decor, largely decorated in green Victorian wallpaper and neutral tones, accented by reds. The flooring of the condo is a dark brown reddish hardwood floor. The windows are dressed with red curtains matching the red, white and gold Persian/oriental-style rug and to top it are a couch and a chair that are off-white, and an off-white marble-topped wood coffee table. On the walls are a bunch of frames with old coins, they're everywhere, in the living area, in the kitchen, there were even some in his room. In the corner of the living area there is a stylish divider to block the immediate view of his exercise area that consists mostly of weight-lifting equipment. His dining table is of an old French country style wood. Everything in Mr. Ginoza's home is not at all how I had expected it would be. They say you can tell a lot about someone by looking through their home; Mr. Ginoza's style is soft, neutral and sophisticated meaning that he is a soft hearted person who enjoys the simpler things in life but not without having an interest in antiques. There are some pieces of furniture that I am sure is almost two hundred year old and in perfect shape too. I never did try to understand Mr. Ginoza or even try to get to know him, if I did… Maybe I'd be in a better position to help him…

"How can someone commit a crime and then just disappear like that? It just doesn't make any sense…" I ask as Mr. Kougami walks by catching his attention.

"It's not that they disappeared, they're just good at hiding their traces." He answers lighting a cigarette.

"Mr. Kougami nothing here shows any signs that there was a break-in. If it had not been for Dime we never could have tell that a crime even occurred here. Nothing adds up, why Mr. Ginoza? Why not someone else?" True that Mr. Ginoza is one of the MWPSB's senior inspector but he isn't the only one either so why him? Does this criminal wish to send a message to us in using one of our own?

"Now you're asking the right questions Akane." Mr. Kougami replies with a smile on his face like he figured something out that I still haven't. "That's what this criminal wants you to think; it's a form to lure inspectors off the right track in order to give himself the time he needs to do his kills in his own sick and twisted ways. These types of lunatics are the ones who feel an obligation to kill with their specific signatures. Those signatures are what we use to identify serial killers, those signatures give them a sexual release that they can't get with just a simple kill and my guesses, his must take some time to do, hence the game."

"But why Mr. Ginoza? That's what I don't get Mr. Kougami. What's the message is he sending to the MWPSB?"

"It's not a message, well none that I can make of anyhow. I'd say it's more of a way to taunt us than a message. It's a simple mind game nothing more, he only wants you to think it means something just so you'll waste time on it." He quickly answers followed by a puff on his cigarette before continuing. "First we return to the MWPSB, we go to Shion and get her to run a search through the database for any deceased in the last year with the same characteristic as Gino and that will be our lead to go on."

"Characteristics?"

"Appearance. Typical serial killers will stick to victims with similar appearances like hair color, skin tone, height, weight, gender, and so on."

"Profiling the criminal, I get it." I feel ridiculous; like I'm being babied every time there's a case. It's like I can't follow Mr. Kougami, he's always one… No two steps ahead of me, most of the time I feel like he's the one guiding the unit, doing the role of the inspector and I'm the one who follows like the enforcer, it should be the other way around… It's not that I don't get along well with the enforcers, I like them all and I respect their opinions on the cases but I've got no idea where I'm going. "So Mr. Kougami you think that whoever did this has already killed before?"

"I do, he's too good at hiding his traces for being his first abduction…"

"The residences don't know anything, none was even aware that a crime had even occurred." Kagari states removing his hologram costume. "How do you take a six feet tall guy out of a building without being notice and not to mention this fucker had to carry dead weight and even when Gino isn't dead weight he's not lite alright. He's fucking ridiculously heavy, I don't get where he packs that weight."

"If you lifted weights, you'd be heavier too." Ms. Kunizuka shoots back at Kagari but no argument starts up surprisingly. Anyway, I give out the orders that we were to return to the MWPSB as Mr. Kougami suggested earlier but I wished that I was as confident as I sounded. What would Mr. Ginoza do in such a situation? Knowing him he'd probably ignore Mr. Kougami… No, he wouldn't, I'm just overthinking…

A heavy hand on my shoulder takes me out of my thoughts as I look up to meet Mr. Masaoka's eyes. "Stressing yourself won't help solve the case; it will only cause you to make mistakes. Take it easy, one step at a time little missy and hope for the best outcome." How is it that Mr. Masaoka can be so calm in this type of situation, his son is the one whose life is on the line and yet he hasn't lost his cool, not even the slightest?


Ms. Karanomori lit a thin cigarette, casually blowing the smoke out of her mouth as she hits a few keys on her keyboard. "I ran a thorough search in the database fitting Gino's characteristics and five matches came up and what a coincidence all of them are cold files." She states in her casual calm tone.

"Is it enough to assume that their deaths were caused by the same murderer?" I ask looking at the screen of all males with dark hair and pale skin with green eyes.

"Normally it wouldn't be. However, their cause of death is the same. Their deaths were caused by exsanguination that led to a haemorrhagic shock but there was one thing that came out as odd with all of the cases though." She blew out another puff of smoke before pressing a few keys making several images of the victims show up on screen. I can't believe what I'm seeing, every victim are as white as snow, their pigmentation is completely gone! "The bodies were completely drained of their blood. A human body that loses more than forty percent is fatal. The heart exhaust itself and it stops pumping so at death the human body still has blood in the veins. All we know is that these victims got their blood completely drained dry, how it was done exactly remains unclear and much to debate but this is why the corps' skin turned completely white."

"Fuck that's going to be Gino if we don't catch this fucker." I could feel Kagari's frustration in his voice as he spoke and I'm sure he's not the only one, just the others are just better at having a poker face. Mr. Masaoka is silent, just listening to what we say and observe what Ms. Karanomori shows us on the screen but nothing more but I can tell that he's in deep thoughts.

"This guy's pattern is obvious." Mr. Kougami suddenly blurts out as he walks closer to the monitor. "The first victim's body was found dumped in an alley on January fifteen and if we go to the second victim. His body was found on a bench in a public park on March fifteen and if we jump to the third, his body was discovered in a cemetery entrance on May fifteen. Fourth victim near a public fountain hologram on July fifteen and our last victim was found on September fifteen near a museum." A smile on his face as he sits down on a chair never removing his eyes off the screen. "Today is October fifteen; we've got until November fifteen to find Gino, giving us exactly thirty days to solve this case. If we don't we'll be looking at body number six and a thirty day race to figure out who exactly is the next target."

"That must be how he manages to abduct his victims. He stalks his victims a month before attacking; getting to know everything they do, their schedules, everything. Kind of creepy really." I voice out but is a month long enough to befriend someone? If this individual befriended Mr. Ginoza during the time he was stalking him and learning everything he needs to know about Mr. Ginoza, it would explain how this criminal entered his home so easily in the first place. Thinking back at Dime, Mr. Kougami said that Dime was the type of dog to bark at the slightest noise that is not familiar to him. So if I place into account that this criminal did in fact break into Mr. Ginoza's home, Dime would have barked and from what Mr. Kougami told me, Mr. Ginoza is a very lite sleeper so he would have woken up and would have been able to defend himself and therefore we would have found traces of a struggle at his place but we didn't. Dime didn't bark because he did not feel like he needed too and the other fact is that the dog's body was found in the kitchen further proves that Dime was familiar to this person and he was already inside…

"If this person killed five people already how did he avoid the street scanners for so long? His Psycho-Pass must be incredibly high right now." Ms. Kunizuka states, something I had over looked much to my foolishness.

"Let's just assume at this point that he's good at avoiding the street scanners." Mr. Kougami quickly answers.

"Inspector we should visit the past crime scenes of the other victims. I can't help but feel like we might have missed something there. All these bodies just disposed in complete view, the killer wants the bodies to be found." I agree with Mr. Masaoka on this one, it would be the best bet we have right now.

"I get the vibe that this criminal's message is how and where he places his victims. I agree with pops that visiting those crime scenes is a good idea." Agrees Mr. Kougami.

"Two crime scenes are not that close to the others, actually they are in complete opposite of the city and the others have a fair distance away from each other and with one inspector down, we can't split up the unit. It will take a lot of time, time we just don't have right now." Ms. Kunizuka states. Just when we start to get a momentum, we are hit with another problem if only the enforcers could be given a temporarily leave on their own to investigate. I'm confident in all of them that they won't try to run away, Mr. Masaoka, Mr. Kougami, Kagari and Ms. Kunizuka all want to find Mr. Ginoza as soon as possible but I know the chief would never allow it.

"We'll just have to do our best and work fast-"

"That won't be necessary inspector. My unit will cover the crime scene in the cemetery and near the museum." Inspector Aoyanagi… I've never had the opportunity to actually talk to her up close before… "Cat got your tongue inspector?" It took me a few seconds to process it all; I'm just a little speechless and taken by surprise. I never thought that anyone would offer assistance.

"All the help we can get is greatly appreciated inspector Aoyanagi!" I quickly bow in gratitude and thank her more times than I should but finally for the first time since this whole nightmare started, I feel as if I'm catching a break for the first time. I just feel relieved.

"Alright then, we'll be taking the further away scenes and leaving the nearer ones for your team. Even if the enforcers scatter to those locations it won't matter since you will still be in the vicinity and besides, you won't have any worries with this bunch." She replies with a confident tone. I don't know why inspector Aoyanagi decided to help but right now I'm just thankful, being new in this position isn't easy… Even though Mr. Ginoza is crabby and irritable, I still view his seniority and his experience valuable. I can't fail, failure isn't an option, I need my partner back.


My regular readers you all know the drill, my new ones be little dears and gimme a review. It's always fun to know your thoughts, it really is.