Hey. I have finally overcome my laziness and uploaded something. Incredible, right?

Also, I have overcome my stubbornness to purposely ignore quotation laws.

And now: Enjoy reading! (And hopefully leaving reviews.)

Chapter Nine:

Falling Back

"''I'll never let go of you again,' she whispered. 'I swear it.'"

December 2112

The room Natsumi was standing in was grey and cold.

After a long search they had finally found the culprit of the retell of the Specimen Case: A young girl, a student of Oso Academy ‒ Oryo Rikako. Nobody had expected someone like her to be the culprit. She was the prettiest. She was the most popular. She was the most talented. Why should she do such gruesome things? Why should a seventeen-year-old girl do such a thing?

In the end, everyone had been wrong. It had not been Toma Kozaburo, who had killed and disgraced his victims in the same way three years ago. It had been Oryo Rikako. Somehow she had found his workshop and his reserves and had seen her chance to send a sign. She had tried to send signs with horrible sculptures of dead people. They hadn´t been that clear like Toma´s. They lacked originality. But they had been terrible.

And this was the place where she had killed many girls and made them into sculptures. This was the place where Toma Kozaburo had done the same thing years ago. This was the workshop of two maniacs. Two psychopaths.

But this wasn´t the reason why Natsumi felt ill and worried that she could spit up.

Less than two days ago she had passed out when her headache just continued to worsen. Kogami had been terribly worried and the others too. After she had woken up in the sick room, everyone had treated her like an egg. Kagari hadn´t spoken with her in his usual manner, Masaoka had always offered her his hand by the simplest things... Karanomori and Kunizuka had tried to be always around her, so she wasn´t alone when she needed help again. Ginoza had even taken every single job from her. She wasn´t fragile. She had only had a headache and because of the immense pain, she had fainted. Even someone like Kogami would have fainted.

Natsumi didn´t like it that people treated her differently only because she had amnesia or terrible headaches because of the amnesia. After all, she was still the same Natsumi they knew. Nothing had changed. Still they looked at her as she had a terrible disease and would die soon. She wasn´t dying. She only had headaches for some point. What was wrong with headaches? Everyone had them. And only because she had fainted because of them didn´t mean that they had to treat her differently. Headaches were headaches. And she had only fainted because she had been sad because of Sasayama and tired and the headaches had been just too intense. Couldn´t they understand?

She hated pity so much.

Natsumi examined the room with the others. Nobody spoke a word. She had seen the pictures of the sculptures and the real sculptures. She had seen the photographs of the original Specimen Case and had read all reports. Sasayama had been one of the victims ‒ the last one of Toma. Kogami had found his sculpture and had been driven mad by the sight.

She wondered if this had happened to her too, would she have been there. If she had become a latent criminal and had got the measure of the System that she was able to be an Enforcer too. Or if her psycho-pass had stayed as clean as ever.

"Inspector Sekimoto."

Natsumi flinched and turned around. Kogami stood behind her, looking dark and dangerous in the dim light. For some point she blushed and she hoped that he wasn´t able to see anything.

"What´s the matter, Kogami-san?" she asked.

"You seem absent. The others are worried but don´t want to say anything."

And you? Are you also worrying about me, Kogami-san?

"I´m fine. No worries, please."

"You fainted because of headaches two days ago, Inspector."

She blinked at him. Suddenly she felt great annoyance. Natsumi had already told them so often that she was okay.

"I was exhausted, Kogami-san. If you had been me, you would have also fainted," she said as calmly as she was able to.

"Inspector, this isn´t the point... "

Natsumi didn´t want them to worry. "I don´t want you or anyone to worry about me. I´m twenty years old, an Inspector of the MWPSB and I´m able to do my own decisions. Can you please understand that, Kogami-san? You and the rest?"

"Inspector... ," Kogami tried but Natsumi cut him off again. She didn´t want to hear what he wanted to say. She knew that he spoke for the rest of them. She knew that they were worried. But they shouldn´t. But that wasn´t the only reason why she began to feel annoyed... She had wanted to talk about this one certain thing for so long. And now she couldn´t keep it for herself. She was tired and annoyed, her head hurt and Kogami made everything even worse.

"Shortly before our goodbye you began to call me 'Natsumi-san.' And I see no point why you´re not doing it anymore," Natsumi said, her throat dry.

"The times have changed, Inspector. I´m now an Enforcer and you´re an Inspector. You´re my superior," Kogami replied.

"Damn it, Kogami. Stop calling me 'Inspector' all the time. It annoys me. It´s okay when you call me like that sometimes but not frequently!" she shouted.

"Sekimoto... ," Kogami started and his lovely grey eyes turned serious and kind of cold.

"It´s not only because of the headaches why we´re so worried about you. After you have woken up you´re behaving differently. Aren´t you noticing it?"

Natsumi narrowed her eyes. "Behaving differently? I´m behaving completely normal, Kogami-san."

"You called me 'Kogami' without the formal address earlier. You never did this before."

"Because you´re annoying me!" she replied.

"You have never spoken with me or anyone like that, Sekimoto. Is something wrong?"

She liked Kogami but sometimes he could really be annoying. "Nothing is wrong, Kogami-san. Please understand this and tell the others. You all are imagining things. I´m perfectly fine. I´m acting perfectly normal. Everything is perfectly normal, if you can call it like that."

With those words she turned around and continued to examine the room. She knew if she looked back she would see Kogami staring after her, so she didn´t. She had no idea why they couldn´t understand that she was, in fact, okay.

Natsumi walked to some of the side rooms and examined the walls. They were completely blank. Only fine cracks ran through them. And when she raised her hand to run with her index finger over the cracks she noticed that they were shacking. Suddenly she saw her conversation with Kogami before her inner eye in fast forward. She heard the words she had said and the words he had said, she could see what he had done and what she had done. But she didn´t only see her conversation with Kogami but also the conversations she had over the last two days after she had woken up. And because of the wave of information she fell to her knees and put her hands before her eyes. Why the hell had she talked to them like that? Why?

She couldn´t understand it anymore.

Natsumi had never spoken to anyone like that ‒ and she would have never done it. But she did. And she didn´t know why.

And suddenly she didn´t only thought about this but also about Toma, Oryo and the Specimen Cases. Especially about Toma and the original Specimen Case.

And then the headaches exploded in her head.

The last thing she could remember was someone calling her name.

Kogami watched her moving around the room. They had found the culprit ‒ a girl named Oryo Rikako. In fact, he had. But with great help of Natsumi.

In 2109, he had already known that she had a natural talent for being an detective but she was too shy and contained. She didn´t know what she was able to do. But after he had the pleasure to work with her again, he had the feeling that she was improving.

And then she sometimes had those "mood swings."

After Natsumi had woken up after her headaches had blacked her out, she sometimes behaved strange. For a moment she was the Sekimoto Natsumi everyone knew and in the next moment she seemed like a completely different person. It was scary.

However, during her "mood swings" she got waves of confidence which had helped during the investigation. Kogami had always known that Natsumi was talented. But those "mood swings" had showed him that he had, in fact, underestimated her. She was a better detective than himself and anyone else he knew. Still he didn´t like the other Natsumi. He liked the one he knew. The one Sasayama knew.

Natsumi was examining something which looked like a gigantic aquarium. She looked absent and she had folded her hands together. As always.

Kogami walked towards her. "Inspector Sekimoto."

He saw Natsumi flinching before turning around. She looked at him with wide eyes and then blushed for a moment. He didn´t know why she did it, but he assumed that she would be embarrassed if he addressed it, so he didn´t.

"What´s the matter, Kogami-san?" she asked. Her voice was shaking.

They were standing so closely to each other, he could smell her apple shampoo.

"You seem absent. The others are worried but don´t want to say anything," Kogami told her in a calm voice.

"I´m fine. No worries, please." She hesitated with every word.

"You fainted because of headaches two days ago, Inspector."

"I was exhausted, Kogami-san. If you had been me, you would have also fainted," she said and he could see that she struggled with herself to say the words calmly.

"Inspector, this isn´t the point... "

"I don´t you or anyone to worry about me. I´m twenty years old, an Inspector of the MWPSB and I´m able to do my own decisions. Can you please understand that, Kogami-san? You and the rest?"

For a moment Kogami´s eyes widened when he heard her talk like that.

"Inspector... ," Kogami tried but Natsumi cut him off again. Those damn "mood swings," he thought. They´ve started again.

"Shortly before our goodbye you began to call me 'Natsumi-san.' And I see no point why you´re not doing it anymore," Natsumi said and he saw tears glittering in her eyes. She seemed smaller than ever and the dark rings under her eyes didn´t make it better that she was looking awful.

She has found out about Sasayama days ago and now the thing with the headaches... she must be terribly sad and scared.

"The times have changed, Inspector. I´m now an Enforcer and you´re an Inspector. You´re my superior," Kogami replied. His mouth was dry.

Suddenly he saw anger rising in her face. "Damn it, Kogami. Stop calling me 'Inspector' all the time. It annoys me. It´s okay when you call me like that sometimes but not frequently!" she shouted, glaring.

"Sekimoto... ," Kogami started and this time he wouldn´t allow her to cut him off. She had problems and didn´t even realise it. She was confused and scared.

"It´s not only because of the headaches why we´re so worried about you. After you have woken up you´re behaving differently. Aren´t you noticing it?" he said carefully. He didn´t want to upset her.

"Behaving differently? I´m behaving completely normal, Kogami-san."

"You called me 'Kogami' without the formal address earlier. You never did this before."

"Because you´re annoying me!" she replied.

"You have never spoken with me or anyone like that, Sekimoto. Is something wrong?" Kogami continued to speak calmly.

"Nothing is wrong, Kogami-san. Please understand this and tell the others. You all are imagining things. I´m perfectly fine. I´m acting perfectly normal. Everything is perfectly normal, if you can call it like that," she snapped and then turned around. She walked towards some of the side rooms.

Kogami knew that she didn´t mean anything she said during those "mood swings." She was neither in puberty ‒ she was twenty after all ‒ nor she had her period. She hadn´t slept in the last days and those headaches and Sasayama´s death wrenched at her nerves.

All she needed was a cup of hot tea and a lot of sleep. And answers. She needed an answer for her headaches, he knew. They had no idea what had caused them or why she had fainted because of them. Karanomori assumed that she had remembered something but this something wasn´t able to reach her. But the day she had fainted Kogami had only talked with her about Sasayama and the original Specimen Case. What could have been the cause of her remembering something? Neither Karanomori nor Kogami or Kagari had an idea.

Kogami followed her after she went to the side room. She limped a bit, dragging along her right leg. When she had been examined after he had found her in the burning house, they had found out that she hadn´t got this injury in the house, but long ago. But of course, Natsumi couldn´t remember how she got it. Also, this had never been important to her. No matter how much her injury hurt, she was a great runner. Probably she had been accepted as a professional athlete if she hadn´t been injured.

When he entered the room he saw to his horror that Natsumi was kneeling on the floor, her hands over her eyes and crying in agony.

Her headaches. Her headaches have come back.

Panic took control of him when he shouted her name and ran towards her, before she fell onto the hard ground.

For a moment he had thought that his heart would stop beating. He had thought the same after he hadn´t been able to find Akane on this fateful day.

For the first time in forever, Makishima Shogo´s hand shook when he pressed "start" again. He had wanted this recording because of this Enforcer ‒ Kogami Shinya. Because, he didn´t only feel a strange familiarity with the name but also, because he had been the one who figured out that it hadn´t been Toma Kozaburo but Oryo Rikako who had killed these girls. He was special ‒ his skills as detective were stunning. It would be fun to test him.

But when Choe Gu-sung, his loyal right-hand man, had given him the recording Makishima would have never guessed that it would contain something else than Kogami Shinya.

All those years... all those terrible, terrible years, he had thought that she would be dead. That the Sibyl System had found, tortured and killed her. And this had awoken a deep despise against the System. Before this fateful day he had hated it but after taking Akane away... his life had only been centered around bringing it down.

How many days, months and years he had spent, thinking about her last moments? If she had been tortured until she couldn´t stand it anymore and died in pain. Or if her death had been fast. If she had thought about him before she died. How they had found her. If she had been scared. If she had died all alone.

Imagining her injured and slowly dying on the cold ground while reaching out for him ‒ him, who would never be able to save her ‒, disgruntled him every time. Akane had just been seventeen years old ‒ damn it ‒ when they had caught and killed her. She had been a child. An innocent child who had never done anything to anyone. But she had been a danger with her ability to control her psycho-pass ‒ an ability which could mean the end of the Sibyl System ‒ and had to die. She would have never done anything against the System for as she loved it after all the pain she had felt, but the System had feared and killed her because of her ability. Because of something she hadn´t been able to help it. Because of something she had been born with. How many pieces of furniture did Makishima destroy in the last years when he had been enraged due to these thoughts? Due to what the System had done to him?

But now. But now, everything was different.

Makishima pressed "play" and in-between the conversation between the lead Inspector of Division One, Ginoza Nobuchika, and Kogami Shinya and partly other Enforcers, he heard her voice. After she had gone missing he had started to miss her voice, her lovely voice, every day. He missed her teases, her advice, her kindness, her jokes, her intelligent replies. Makishima had never missed anyone like he had missed his little Akane.

And when he had heard her voice in the recording, he had recognised it immediately. He had never forgotten it. How could he?

It had surprised him and for a moment he had thought he was imagining, that he had gone insane but after hearing the recording over and over again, he didn´t think that he was insane anymore: The person who spoke in the recording was indeed Tsunemori Akane and not some Sekimoto Natsumi as it should. His Akane. The Akane he had thought was long dead.

I have found her, he thought and leaned back on his chair, his heart beating fast. After all these years... I have found her.

Choe entered the room which was dark except the light coming from the monitor.

"Is something wrong?" he asked after he saw the look on Makishima´s face. Makishima turned around and pressed the recording without saying anything. Choe listened carefully and when the part came when someone said "Originality, right?" his eyes widened. His eyes never widened.

"Makishima... ," he began. "How are you feeling?"

"How should I feel, Choe?"

"I think you should feel happy... for so many years you thought that she´s dead. And now you just got to know that she´s, in fact, alive."

"But I´m not happy, Choe."

He raised an eyebrow. "Why... "

"For all those years we´ve thought she´s dead," Makishima said. "We know that she was captured by the System and we assumed that the henchmen of Sibyl had killed her. And now we´ve found out that she´s alive and working with the MWPSB as an Inspector."

"She was always a good detective but... "

"What my point is? It´s the 'why.' Why should they let her live? Why didn´t she come back to us? Why is she using a false name? The answers to the last questions are simple... she has probably forgotten about everything she was. To whom she belonged. What she could do. What her name is. She forgot everything. So she didn´t come back and because of that she needed a new name. However, the first question isn´t that simple."

Makishima´s fair eyes suddenly turned dark.

"The only reason why the System captured her, is her ability to control her psycho-pass. There can´t be another reason. But with this ability she´s a great danger to the System. The Sibyl System should be perfect, should be able to judge every person. With someone like her who can´t be judged, a crack in their perfect shell is formed. And this would mean, if anybody finds out, that the people could try to bring it down and replace it with another System, a better one, a perfect one. But those who support Sibyl don´t want to let it be replaced so they eliminate every danger which could lead to a replacement. With this logic they should have killed Akane back then. However, they didn´t. For some point they let her live and be an Inspector. The question is,why. Why would they do such a thing? The answer: It´s a trap. They know that she has interacted with more of her kind and want to capture them too. But as we know Akane, she didn´t tell them when she was tortured and interrogated. She remained silent whatever they did to her, so they needed another strategy to capture the others: They had to take her memories away and send her back to life in the hope that some day the people, she knew and also had this ability, would find her and they would have the chance to capture them too and kill them alongside Akane. And that she´s an Inspector now... That´s everything she´s ever wanted. That´s the thing she was always good at. Sibyl uses Akane not only as a trap but also as an Inspector, hunting down criminals, because they know that she´s perfect for the job. And they don´t want to waste such a talent when they don´t have to ‒ now. Anything else doesn´t make sense."

"So... you think that the System is after you? Not after you in the way that they know your name and all, but because they know that you´re existing?"

"Indeed. And they are using Akane to get me." Makishima turned his face back to the monitor and his face was illuminated terrifyingly.

"And I will never tolerate this. I hated Sibyl after they took her away from me. But now it´s time for war."

I will find you. I will find you and will never let go of you again. I will save you. I promise it. I promise that I won´t stop saving you. I do, I really do, Dearie Girlie. And nothing can stop me.

The quote is from Dianna Hardy's "The Demon Bride."

It was nice to write a chapter from three different perspectives. Especially, I've looked forward to finally write a current Makishima.

Wow. I don't have much else to say. Except: Did you see the movie trailer? If you didn't and you don't like spoilers, you shouldn't watch it as it contains A LOT OF SPOILERS. I really have no idea why they revealed such a thing before the end of Season 2.

Okay. Until next time!

Momo

- currently fixing stuff and working on chapter 14