Drink up all of your colleague's coffee. 1 point.
Kagari displayed a toothy grin. "And remember Akane-chan, you can't take mine or Kunicchi's coffee! Has to be a non-player!"
His reminder almost made Akane pout, though it was to be expected he was not letting go of the fact she tried to 'cheat' on their first game together. She passed over the Dare Box with a sigh.
"Don't worry, I'll make sure," she promised.
Crossdress. 3 points.
In the corner of her eye, Akane noticed his face marring into a deep frown.
"Afraid of your dare, Kagari?" she teased with a slight smile.
She was responded with a raised eyebrow. "Me, afraid? You underestimate my loyalty to game rules, Akane-chan," he retorted. "It's just that, it's not like I can find a spare dress or anything to change around here. This is the Criminal Investigation Division, not a shopping centre."
Akane's smile thinned out. "Oh, I see your point... well, I have some make-up, would that do instead?"
Before Kagari could reply, Yayoi snapped her head up, cutting in between the two.
"Inspector," she pointed out. "Aren't you wearing a skirt?"
Three pairs of eyes immediately lowered to Akane's modest black skirt and tights. There was a pause, where all pairs of eyes were trying to guess if Kagari could fit into the clothes in subject.
"Where we gonna get changed? There are cameras even in the filing room," he muttered.
"Bathrooms, idiot," Yayoi clipped in.
"Hey, you forgot Akane-chan's a girl and I'm a guy!"
"Then go join her in the girls bathroom."
"Won't I get beaten up if any of the ladies catch me?"
"Convince them you're a lady as well," Yayoi chided and snatched the Dare Box from Kagari's hands.
She thumbed over its surface and the new dare flashed on screen.
Shout out "Danger!" and tackle-hug someone. 5 points.
Kagari read the message out loud and sniggered. "Aw, man. Considering Kou-chan is built like a brick wall and Masaoka-san has judo-reflexes looks like you're gonna end up tackling Gino-san!"
Whilst he laughed away at his imagination, Akane noticed the slight change in Yayoi's facial expression. She usually kept a consistent neutral mask, but the Inspector had noticed time-to-time the mask softens in sympathy or stiffens during field work. At the present time, Yayoi's mask had none of the three mentioned attributes- but a slight greyish tinge instead.
If Akane was to make a very crude guess, she would've thought that Yayoi was actually horrified at the idea of tackle-hugging her boss.
"Erm, are you okay, Kunizuka-sa-?"
"Good morning!" A familiar woman bounced into the office with barely all of her shirt buttoned up, showing off the hem of her bra, her blond hair arranged perfectly around her face and a stack of papers being waved proudly in her manicured hand. "Guess which genius finished her casework one day early? I can't wait to see the look on the Inspector's face when I show hi-"
"Danger!" Yayoi interrupted.
She threw herself onto a unsuspecting Shion and dragged her into the filing room, slamming the door shut behind them.
There was a pause. And then there was some scuffling and muffled voices.
"Would that be considered a tackle-hug?" Akane abruptly asked.
Kagari wasn't sure whether he should be aghast or amazed. He patted the young Inspector on the shoulder and began steering her out of the office. "Seriously, I said there were cameras in the filing room and still... never mind, let's go switch clothes, Akane-chan."
"But what about Kuni-"
"Trust me, she's done the dare."
There was nothing wrong about being early to work, in fact, Ginoza thought that being a little early showed good commitment towards the job. On the other hand, he felt it was highly suspicious that Inspector Tsunemori and the two younger Enforcers were always huddled together a good ten minutes before their morning shift. He had quickly noticed that it occurred near the same time all three of them began acting strangely.
He stepped into the office with the same trio looking up to bid him good morning. Saying this, they were actually sitting at their own designated work stations instead of being close together- he hoped it meant the entire fiasco was finally over. He wanted to push this out of his memory.
But when his eyes met Akane's, it was as if a cold bucket of water was thrown over his head.
"Morning, Inspector Ginoza. Oh, you look a bit pale," she noted. "Did you not sleep well last night?"
How on earth was he meant to sleep well when there was a possibility his junior like his dad? No matter what he did, he couldn't escape the nagging feeling crawling up his spine. He stiffly marched past her trying to beat out the nightmare which plagued him for the past five hours.
He was broken out from his thoughts when someone slapped him on the shoulder.
"-ino. Gino! Are you listening?"
"What?"
"I've called your name out five times, are you still just half-awake?" Kougami asked, setting a stack of files and a cup of coffee on his workstation.
"Mind your own business. What do you want anyway?"
A thumb was jerked over his shoulder. "A private word."
The Inspector followed out his former partner out of the office. The moment the door slid shut, Kagari spun round on his chair and pointed frantically at Akane.
"Quick! The coffee!" he ordered.
It took Akane three seconds to figure out what he was trying to say. She snatched Kougami's half-drunken coffee cup and sipped it. It tasted horrible. Then again, she always had hers with plenty of milk and sugar- some cream as well with chocolate powder, if it was available. She gagged and set it back on her colleague's desk with a grimace.
Her witness however, was not satisfied.
"You're meant to drink all of it!" he insisted.
"But it tastes horrible!" she spluttered.
"Your dare said to 'drink up all of your colleague's coffee!'" Kagari recited, his eyes keeping flitting towards the door and back to Akane. "Come on Inspector, besides, Kou-chan's probably drank half of it for you already."
Akane squeezed her eyes shut and swallowed up the rest of the bitter drink. It was more lukewarm than hot so she didn't have to worry about it burning her throat, but still- it tasted horrible.
"Go, Akane-chan! Go, Akane-chan!" he chanted whilst fist-pumping at every gulp. "I think you have five seconds left before Kou-chan gets back. Go, Akane-chan!"
Yayoi ignored both of them.
The cup was emptied and Akane slammed it back on the desk, retreating to her own work station, shuddering and choking.
Kougami returned just as she began rinsing her mouth with some water. He collapsed back into his own chair and brought his cup to his lips, only to pull it away again to stare at its empty contents.
None of his younger colleagues looked up from their screens.
Kougami crushed the cup in his hand.
Fortunately for Gino, his day was going rather smoothly. Asides from the fact he had been unsuccessful in recovering his plants, his work was going well, Shion had handed her analysis report a day before the deadline so he was in fact, ahead of schedule.
Kougami had asked if he could have his monthly health checkup early since he too had finished up most of his case reports, so he was out of the office, which also meant less cigarette smoke wafting in the air.
It was a good morning.
Then his blood froze.
Akane and Masaoka were pulling on their coats whilst leaving the office together.
"Wait, where are you two going?" he demanded.
"Fieldwork. It isn't much, just a latent criminal spotted at a small coffee shop," Masaoka replied casually.
"It's a good coffee shop as well. I've been there before," Akane added lightly. "We should have a cup after we finish, Masaoka-san. I'll treat you."
Ginoza's eyes widened at her offer. Sirens were shrieking inside his head so loudly he almost thought it was coming from the fire alarm next to him. Don't take the bait, Masaoka. Don't take the bait. Don't take the bait! was being repeated like a mantra over the red alert.
"I'd love to."
The sirens exploded. His brain was on fire, sending off a rapid, glowing reel of last night's nightmares.
"No!" he blurted out.
The two in front of him almost took a step back in surprise at his outburst.
"No?" Akane echoed in confusion.
"Masaoka has a lot of work to do," Ginoza babbled. "Go with Kougami instead."
"But Kougami-san has just gone for his health checkup..." the younger Inspector countered.
"Then go with Kagari."
On cue; Kagari shot up from his seat and performed a mock salute. "Sir!"
It was only then did Ginoza realize that the bottom half of Enforcer Kagari was different from usual.
"Kagari... why are you in a skirt?"
"Gi-Gino-san! Why are you looking at my legs?"
Ginoza pinched the bridge of his nose. "Kagari, sit down. Kunizuka, up."
A rare frown creased Masaoka's face. "Hey Nobu, I'm not exactly sure what is going on, but if you think about it, wouldn't I make a better choice to go? Kou and I worked with ojou-chan longer than Kagari and Kunizuka, so we're more used to eachother as a team."
"Besides, Kunizuka-san has a lot of paperwork to do as well," Akane added. "We'll be fine, Ginoza-san- if that's what you're worrying about."
"You heard the ojou-chan. Let's be on our way."
"We'll only be going out for just an hour," Akane promised.
"You two aren't going out anywhere!"
In the end, Ginoza grudgingly volunteered himself to go with Masaoka to complete their fieldwork, he however, declined the Enforcer's idea of spending a short break in the coffee shop afterwards. Akane thought she heard Kagari whisper to Yayoi about 'they're finally having some father-son time' or something similar.
She shook her head and went out for some real coffee. She moved through the maze of corridors before finding the vending machine serving hot beverages. A debit card was slotted in. A few numbers punched. The coffee brand and milk option was selected.
Just as Akane pulled out the hot drink from the machine, a shadow loomed over her.
She jerked her head up and saw Kougami standing very closely behind her.
"Erm, Kougami-sa-?"
Without a word he snatched her cup and began gulping it down. When only half of the drink was left, he placed the cup back in her hands and stalked off.
Akane blinked.
She had no idea Kougami could be so childishly protective of his coffee. It tasted disgusting.
At the end of the day; Kagari had less fun that he thought he'd whilst crossdressing. Kougami and Masaoka didn't even look twice, Gino was too busy fretting over his missing plants to give an over-reaction.
He and Akane slipped back into the women's bathroom to switch their skirt and trousers between cubicles.
"Kagari, when are you going to give back Ginoza-san's plants?" she asked.
"He'll find them eventually. If he's really desperate, he'll look it up in the office surveillance cameras."
"...that's not very nice."
"No one said I was nice." He paused. "Oh crap! We need to get out, Akane-chan! Cleaning lady will be here any minute!"
They threw themselves out of their cubicles and through the door. Kagari stumbled out first, still zipping up his trousers. Akane was following him closely behind, smoothing out her skirt, and her tights scrunched up in one hand.
"Oh."
The two of them froze. They slowly raised their eyes to meet the shocked face of a familiar blonde-haired analyst.
"Oh," she said again, but this time she dragged it out whilst waggling her eyebrows.
"Karanamori-san?" Akane addressed her innocently.
The analyst shoved her hands into her coat pockets and began strutting back the opposite direction of them. "Don't mind me!" she called over her shoulder.
Whilst Kagari was hiding his face in his hands, Akane looked relieved.
"Isn't Karanamori-san nice?" she observed. "She's letting you off sneaking out of the woman's bathroom without any questions."
"If only."
Kunizuka Yayoi- 10 points
Shuusei Kagari- 7 points
Tsunemori Akane- 16 points
So, to summarize this entire event: Kagari feels awkward. Gino is panicking. Masaoka is still a chill bro. Kougami doesn't like people touching his coffee.
Don't worry, I'll stop with the whole Ginoza panicking over possible MasaAka very soon lol
Thanks so much to Kuugen for influencing the stealing coffee idea and from the sev'nth of march for putting Kagari in a skirt.
Will be replying to everyone's reviews asap! Thanks so much for reading so far!
Sorry if the grammar in this chapter is more sloppy than usual. I'm off to somewhere with no internet for a few days so I wanted to get this out before I go.
Pie.