Chapter Two: Good Cop

"Dude! I'm on my way."

Ayumi pushed through the throngs of people packed at the train station, an annoyed but ultimately heavy look on her face. Her client called her just before the peak of her high, resulting in her being completely faded during the trip, and she was sure it could be seen from a mile away. Ayumi never usually loaded up right before a job (or anything public really), instead relying more on the lasting effects they left to get her through a day in the public eye. As bad as it sounded, she was always buzzed in one way or another, making her used to dealing with uncontrollable circumstances. She had wanted to deny her services for the day, however, Ayumi knew she had to be careful when prioritizing her needs before the druggies'. Those types tended to be prone to aggression and impulsiveness, usually having no issue with abandoning her services and switching to another provider. As bad as it sounded, Ayumi felt somewhat relieved she was the one providing for some of these people (for both capitalization and monitoring). She admitted that she was in no way ethical, but Ayumi did believe she had a sense of justice beneath the curtains of her mind - the ones that couldn't be drawn and controlled by the substances she used.

Hazed eyes scanning the familiar area, Ayumi released a breath and a small giggle as she strolled down the road. To a bystander, the girl might've seemed unstable given her strikingly melancholy demeanor and the slight tremble in her walk. Although she was a veteran in substance use (and possibly abuse), the tremble and underlying shakiness weed brought her were formidable and unbelievably difficult to correct. Ayumi never really liked to probe deep into her methods for doing things, but she had to admit, she did enjoy the challenge it brought her.

Ultimately, the thing she enjoyed about the devil's lettuce and kept her coming back to it as her go to substance was that it was neither a stimulant or depressant. Ayumi could smoke a joint, go into overdrive, then seconds later have her mind sinking down into the depths of semi consciousness. She could miss the big picture, while she picked up on the smallest of details -

Like the fact that she definitely saw the badge sloppily hidden under some askew papers on a black car's dashboard near her meet up point. The car stood out among many others in the lot, being one of the few completely black cars complete with tinted windows. Although the parking lot was right outside a rundown park (which was also in the rougher part of the city), many flocked over to it daily for its lack of surveillance by the police. They chose not to bother keeping a close watch on the eyesore of the town, opting instead to take every high profile, heart stopping, big money case that came their way. Ayumi thanked the universe this was true, as it made her job all the easier.

However, at the moment, Ayumi was physically unable to panic, opting instead to try and force open the thick curtains enveloping her mind. Too buzzed to amplify her adrenaline levels past the maximum, Ayumi rolled her eyes and added a bit of a twitch to her tremble. As if she were an incapable child, Ayumi found herself only able to keep moving forward, the client being the only thing her mind was able to grab before floating higher, and higher , and higher, and then pressing completely down on the sides of her skull. Her legs were programmed to march onward and a flippant change of mind wouldn't be able to stop them. Ayumi's heart couldn't race; she was unaware of whether her sudden sense of calm was due to the weed or acceptance, but she didn't have a problem with it.

I guess this is the best way I could've possibly went down, Ayumi pondered, ultimately deciding to smile and giggle her way over to the meet up spot. Her brain felt murky, yet she could feel deep down some odd sense of catharsis for her situation and situations to come. As the sun set over the park she was trudging towards, Ayumi could feel that her sun was setting right there, as she blubbered in the buzz she had forced herself into. She could see her client in the middle of the park; she could see his intent to never actually buy, his openness removing any previous doubts she still clung to. Even when under the influence, Ayumi's observance was unmatched. Ayumi felt the end's cold breath upon her back in the form of a gust pushing her forward. At this point, there was no use trying to dispose of evidence or throw her bag aside, so Ayumi smiled instead, letting the high completely press on her skull and suck the sense out of her. She could feel the air, the grass, the people, the smiles.

And even then, about to get caught and end up who knows where, Ayumi wondered what the scene would've looked like in color.

"Do you know what you're doing when you distribute your drugs on the streets?" A man with a chronic case of coffee breath sat directly across from Ayumi, not making the eight by eight foot room feel any larger. A twenty minute drive in the back of the undercover cop's car and a meeting with the head detective tracking her whereabouts still hadn't been enough to sober up the faded girl. The detective's words ricocheted off every wall until she could see them everywhere.

Drugs. Kids. Overdose. Lives. Families. Torn. You.

The detective, who had introduced himself as Tsukauchi, was far from the image of what a detective would be like in Ayumi's head. He didn't sport a scowl nursed by years in the line of a difficult duty or the hardened glare she thought would've accompanied the scowl. He still had a good head of hair (she assumed it was cut short by an act of preference) and coordinated his outfit remarkably well. In another lifetime, Ayumi wondered if he was the type of guy she could've been with.

Yuck. Stockholm's for the detective. New low on your high, Ayumi.

Tsukauchi sighed, realizing his upfront approach to interrogating the girl was flawed. Truthfully, specifically taking her into custody was not the focal point of his department's entire operation - they just happened to have gotten lucky catching one of the more notorious dealers in the area. The operation was months in the making, as planning and procuring resources had to be done as covertly and cautiously as possible in order to keep secrecy. The Japanese police force had collectively decided to keep a closer eye on local drug rings and illegal activities to clean Japan's criminal activity out from the bottom up. This required infiltration and commitment, both of which took time to build up. Tsukauchi was tasked with tackling lower scale drug operations in the Hosu district and monitoring criminal motives and intelligence. His ability to do so was in large part due to his quirk's ability to decipher lies from the truth, essentially making him the glorified lie detector of Japan. His personal self respect was one of the few things Tsukauchi tried hard not to pry into.

He clicked his tongue, switching gears. "Y'know, we never got your name. Even after all we did to track you down, somehow we missed that," Tsukauchi spoke, intentionally softening his eyes. He knew exactly how to play his strengths after years of practice, one of them being the "Good Cop" method. Usually, appealing as a father or brother figure in tone of voice and gestures got the younger ones brought in to speak more, as many craved some sort of stability or kindness. Tsukauchi threw a grin in, sure that he had this girl in the palm of his hand. She didn't even know about his quirk!

On the contrary, Ayumi, even with her brain fogged and murky, could see right through the detective's facade, prompting a scowl on her face. He must really think I'm dumb. In a world where she had little to cling to and far less to trust, Ayumi stuck to her "Less is better" motto, intentionally creating more awkward silence. Internally, she grinned as Tsukauchi's fake smile began to fade and was replaced by a look of exhaustion. Ayumi hoped Tsukauchi knew she would be much harder to crack than he thought.

After about five minutes of direct eye contact and silence, Tsukauchi sighed, got up, and exited the room. Ayumi would've done so too, but the handcuffs securing her to the table did not seem like something she wanted to test. She could tell by her blood content that they were quirk suppressing, Ayumi's blood pressure beginning to slowly elevate. She knew she would die, and even worse, completely sober up if she allowed the cuffs to continue draining her, prompting her to begin to sweat and pant.

"Damn it," she hissed, fidgeting in the seat. Ayumi knew someone had to be watching her through the glass, observing, staring, picking apart her every move. She didn't know what hurt more - her pride knowing she would have to reveal personal information about herself, or her heart, which she could feel already beginning to accelerate due to the off balance created by her blood stream. Because she was a lower scale threat on the criminal scale, no bloodwork or fingerprints had been taken from Ayumi when she was ushered into the station. This was station policy: more information could be juiced out of those who felt comfortable and connected.

On the other side of the glass, Tsukauchi stood firmly, his brows furrowing slightly. The girl, who's name he still did not know, was incredibly intoxicated upon her arrival. He wasn't dumb and could clearly see the glazed over look in her eyes as he talked to her, or rather talked at her. No responses, no real expressions, and even more interestingly, no records of her existence in Hosu. Tsukauchi was befuddled when the prints they brought up from the police car had no recorded match at all, meaning the station was dealing with a real life nobody. Any information they got from her couldn't be verified without a birth record or medical history, neither of which existed. On top of such, he had never seen the brunette around in any education facilities or local businesses, adding to the now increasingly large list of questions he had for her. His trained observation skills picked up on the girl's subtle restlessness after approximately thirty minutes in the cuffs, indicating some sort of internal change in the homeostasis of her body. Tsukauchi deduced her quirk greatly impacted her internal systems, seeing as without it she was beginning to almost hyperventilate and was sweating profusely.

Erratic breathing couldn't mask the pain Ayumi was feeling in that moment, that startlingly sober moment. As if the physical torture induced upon her body wasn't bad enough, the mental torment that followed managed to be the worse half of the duo. Clean memories cut from the dustiest parts of the brunette's mind began to play for her like a drive in triple feature she never wanted to attend in the first place. Brakes popped and with everyone watching, Ayumi had no choice but to let her nightmares roll through at her naked mind. She shook, though it was unclear whether the source was pain or fear. Clawing desperately, Ayumi attempted to remove the cuffs, only to get a shock of electricity in response. That pain couldn't be registered in her zombified mind, however, Ayumi repeatedly struggling against the cuffs .

Zap...zap...zap...

And there she laid, sprawled out on the table and unconscious. Of course, Tsukauchi had seen the episode, puzzled and craving more knowledge about the mystery girl. What in the world could've possibly possessed her to knock herself out?

The girl seemed to be a mystery, but what else were detectives for?


Author's Note:

hi guys! I'm publishing this story onto here b/c I am considering deleting my wattpad acc and I want to have my story in a safe place! I'll prob post a chap a day or every few days but just know I have quite a few prepared