New chapter enjoy.
Kougami
"He's got a mild, maybe even moderate hypothermia and to top his trauma, he isn't doing too good. I can't get him to take off his wet clothes nor will he allow me to inspect his injuries." Professor Saiga states as he shows us where Gino is. Where Saiga had left him, sitting in front of the fire place wrapped in a blanket for additional heat, not moving or making a single sound.
Hypothermia is serious enough, when the body temperature drops, the heart, nervous system and other organs can't work properly like it normally does. If left untreated, hypothermia can eventually lead to complete failure of the heart and respiratory system and to death. Luckily the professor acted right away but if Gino is still wearing wet clothing is condition won't improve.
"A forensic should be done, after all he is a walking crime scene even if we do know who the abuser is but we still need to acquire the evidence by protocol. I don't recommend using sudden movements or force, it could worsen his mental state." Saiga continues explaining, making sure not to raise his tone too much. By looking at Gino, I don't even think he even realises that we're even here, like he's stuck in his own little world.
"I'll take care of it. Kougami I'll need your help." Pops tells me as he takes the dry clothes professor Saiga wanted to provide for Gino earlier and gives them to me as he carefully walks towards Gino in the living room.
"Hypothermia can cause him to be confused and cause difficulties speaking, not to mention the post-traumatic stress that he clearly has so be careful, we don't know how he may react. Slow, easy and gentle is most importance here." Like we didn't have enough to worry about, now we have another condition involved but that's the price I paid for having done that gamble. It paid off but not without its consequences but at least Gino's condition isn't life threatening, well not at this point however.
"Then we'll go with inspector Aoyanagi. Seiho can't be too far if Mr. Ginoza got here by foot." I'm not too thrilled with Akane going after this guy with only two of our enforcers but she'll be with division two and Risa is capable, that's the only that helps to ease my uneasiness. Honestly I'd rather be out there searching for the bastard myself but Gino also needs me here and if that freak would reach this place and something would happen without me here, I'd never forgive myself. If we're lucky that bastard will still be there but considering that it took us over an hour to get here and who knows how long it took for Gino to even get here by foot, he could have had the time to flee or chances are that he's currently on a chasse to find and get Gino back.
"Mr. Kougami, if Seiho comes do whatever it takes. Don't let him get near Mr. Ginoza no matter what." She doesn't have to tell me that twice, hell I'll kill him with my own two hands if I have to. Kagari wishes us good luck as he follows Akane out and Kunizuka not far behind and now it's only the four of us.
"I'll leave both of you alone with him. I'll be in the greenhouse if you need me, first aid and the sexual assault forensic evidence kit is here. Only do what you can, don't force him. If you can't get the evidence don't worry about it, just think about his wellbeing for now." With that Saiga left and I turned my attention back to Gino. Pops is already sitting next to him when I walk up to them. Gino is just starring at the flames, not blinking or moving, only his breathing allows me to know that he's in fact still alive. His face is badly bruised, he's got a busted lower lip and I can see some swelling around his jaw as well and I can only imagine what's hiding under that blanket.
"Nobuchika… Son." Pops gently calls out to him as he slowly touches Gino's back causing him to jump in panic but quickly as it came he calms back down when he realized that it was us.
Right there to think that he was so far gone into his mind that he wasn't even aware that we were right there next to him, if we had approached Gino in a rush we could have made him have an episode.
"… Dad…" The words were faint and it sounded like he has a sore throat when he spoke before he burst into tears. Pops held him in his arms as Gino just buried his face in his chest and cried.
I take out my dominator and point it towards Gino getting a disapproval glare from pops as he holds him tighter in his arms, surprisingly that Gino's crime co-efficient isn't that bad considering what he just went through. It's only seventy five, yeah it's high but it can be healed with therapy and proper treatment for his trauma, I can live with that number.
I put my dominator away, I checked what I wanted to know and my assumptions had been proven to be correct. There's no way Gino could have had kept a clear hue without being on some sort of medication so Seiho made sure to get what he wanted at the same time not cloud his victim's hue. The reason would be quite easy to figure out though, if Gino had been tainted black and he would have somehow managed to get away like he just did then the moment he would have been spotted by a street scanner his high psycho-pass would have been alerted and judgement would have been required. In Gino's case it could have been fatal further proving that Seiho never had any intentions of killing Gino to begin with and another reason if Gino became a latent criminal then that bastard wouldn't have been able to get near Gino ever again. He's a freak but I have to give it to him, he knew what he was doing.
"Nobuchika how about we get you out of those wet clothes? You'll get sick if you keep them on any longer." Pops asks as he takes Gino's face in both his hands and immediately I can see that's going to be a problem. The moment pops mentioned removing his clothes, Gino immediately held the blanked tighter around his shoulders and switched his gaze to the floor.
It's common behavior for victims of sexual assault to do that, they are ashamed that it happened, some even blame themselves for the act even though they are completely innocent. Some refuse to speak about it as if it never happened while others just can't forget it. How Gino will be is still early to tell but we'll see soon enough. I just hope if and when he does have flashbacks or nightmares that he won't be in an aggressive state or fall into depression and try to harm himself to forget the memories.
"Gino cooperate with us, we can't help you if you don't work with us. That bastard isn't here, it's just us." I kind of want to kick myself the moment I said it, especially after the professor said to be gentle, well gentle was never my strong point.
"That's right son, it's alright. You're safe now." Thankfully I have pops to pick up the pieces, he's more suited in these kinds of situations than I am. I just want to beat the shit out of Seiho Yoshida for what he did.
"He's out there…" Panic grew in Gino's tone as he spoke, having trouble pronunciation the words as he started shaking.
"Have I ever been beaten before? I'll kick his ass, turn him into pink slush if I have to. That bastard won't lay another finger on your head, that I swear so calm down Gino." A little smile formed on his face, only for a few seconds but it was still there which is good. However, the shaking remained but it helped to calm him down a bit as he released his grip of the blanket allowing it to fall to the floor and started unbuttoning his soaking wet shirt with pops's help. I hand over the dry clothes to pops as I look at Gino as he took off the shirt revealing his upper body. On both sides of his neck, covered in bite marks that actually went right through the skin to the point of drawing blood. Dark blue/blackish hand marks on his neck show clear signs of strangulation. On his arms the same hand marks can be seen for having squeezed him too hard… Hell there isn't a place I can look on his body and not see some form of bruise, they're everywhere. He's so marked that you have a hard time seeing his actual skin color.
I go get the kits Saiga had left on the kitchen counter, allowing myself to cool off at the same time. The pain that Gino went through during those four days, I can just imagine it and it only fuels my anger even more. When I look back at them, pops is talking to Gino. I'm not sure what he's saying but Gino just burst back into tears but the episode passes quick enough thanks to whatever pops is telling him. With both kits in hands I go back to them, I open the rape kit and take out a plastic bag as I take the wet clothes Gino just removed and place them in the bag then sealing it tight.
Since Gino was out running in the rain for who knows how long, whatever evidence that had been on him probably got washed away. I don't see the point of doing the rest, it will only serve to raise Gino's anxiety and it's already bad enough as it is. We already know who it is and the dominator will decide the rest for us.
I let pops treat Gino's wounds as I walk away to give them some space, even though Gino hasn't said anything he's embarrassed to be seen like this. He keeps avoiding eye contact with me but he doesn't with pops so at least that's good. Everything seems to be going good as pops started applying ointments and bandages to where it is needed and Gino starts to put on the dry clothes.
"There that must feel better." Pops says as he closes the first aid-kit.
I go stare outside through the windows, carefully observing in case the bastard shows up, so far so good but it's not over until he's been taken down. He's not the type to just let go and give up, he won't stop until he's dead. I always had a feeling that it would come down to this, I just don't want it to go down with Gino nearby.
"Nobuchika where are you going?" I turn around at pops' question just to see Gino go in the hall, it doesn't take long to find out where when we heard him throw up in the bathroom. Pops rubs his forehead in exhaustion as I go to the bathroom to find Gino on his knees face first above the toilet. Another symptom of hypothermia but in his case it could also be the anxiety he's had, either way it's better that it comes out.
"You alright?" I ask him, not really a question to ask in his case as I come closer to him, enough that I can see what came out. From what it looks like bile and semen, that explains the bruising and swelling around Gino's jaw, Seiho must have forced Gino to perform oral and from the looks of it, he's had to do it a few times too.
"… Ye-yeah…" He managed to say before he started gagging again followed by more vomit.
"Do you feel you're going to be sick again?" I ask as I come up to him. He shakes his head as he flushes the toilet and closes the lid. I help him up to his feet and help him to go back to the living room to where pops is. After being sick it's like all of his strength just suddenly left him as he uses me for support, that's just fine with me.
"How about you get some rest son. You'll feel much better afterwards." Pops takes over for me as he leads Gino to the couch and lets him lay his head on his lap. It doesn't take long for Gino to fall asleep and I can tell that pops is enjoying himself right now as he's stroking Gino's hair. I think it's pretty much the first time that Gino's been that close to pops, I think the last time he was this close was before pops was demoted to an enforcer and that was a long time ago.
The rest of the morning was pretty dull as I kept watch for anything suspicious, so far I didn't see anything. A few times here and there professor Saiga came to see how everything was going with Gino and was pleased that he was sleeping but a few times pops had to comfort a sleeping Gino during a nightmare he was having, probably flashbacks of the assaults he went through. The thing is that he's going to have more of those before he starts feeling better, how long well that's going to be up to him.
The sound of the paddy wagons stopping outside catches my attention. I go to the window, only Akane and Risa get out of their car, looks like we're leaving then. They enter the house and from Akane's expression I know that we don't have that bastard into custody or that he's dead.
"Couldn't find him?" I ask already knowing the answer.
"No… We found a house but he wasn't there. The only thing we found was Hideki Yoshida lying in a pool of blood." Akane answers. So the bastard killed his brother in anger, probably went on to blame him for Gino's escape. There's without a doubt that as long that bastard isn't caught or killed, Gino will never be safe.
"But from what we found in there, it's safe to assume that it was the right place." Akane adds as she walks closer to pops to see Gino. A smile forms on her face as she watches him sleep for a few seconds before coming back to the door.
"Ginoza will be transported by paddy wagon to The Ministry of Welfare's Public Safety Bureau where he will remain until Seiho Yoshida is capture or executed by judgement of the Sibyl system. Those are the orders from the chief." Risa states. Good I was almost afraid that he would have been sent home to recover. Pops won't mind having Gino closer to him and I think for a quick recovery it's best that he can have as much contact with his father as much as possible. Now we have to find that bastard and I fear that it won't be that easy…
Review and tell me what you think and toodles.