A/N: I apologise in advance for the bulk of my knowledge about Japan's legal system coming from Phoenix Wright, and probably very wrong on every level.
Tokyo Police Headquarters was as busy as it ever was, patrol officers constantly bouncing back and forth with coffee cups in hand, detectives hunched over files and screens with more coffee cups, and some of the prosecutors barking orders, also with coffee cups. It took a lot of caffeine to take a modern day police force running smoothly, and that had its drawbacks when it started to wear thin. Sae Nijiima knew this all too well and timed her grand entrance accordingly.
Her first case as a leading defence attorney wasn't a complicated one, the man they had sitting in a cell for assault had been no-where near the scene of the crime and she had both eye-witnesses and a card receipt for the lunchbox he purchased in a convenience store at the approximate time that the victim was getting free amateur dentistry in a chain two miles away. The police had only picked him up off a vague description and now the prosecutor assigned thought he could bully another man into a false confession and get it wrapped up before happy hour. Unfortunately for him, not everyone in the force was aware that Sae had switched sides and let her waltz right in through the precinct.
"Takeo!" She yelled, marching over to a pair of suited men who in sync spilled their fresh coffee cups over their hands and winced. The old cup had just worn off.
"N-Niijima?" Prosecutor Takeo stuttered "I thought you left to become an attorney?" he said, trying to force the memory through the caffeine withdrawal.
"I did. I am. And that's why I'm here," she said quickly, keeping him off guard "The man you have in the cells for the Champion District assault case? You're letting him go with a full apology and maybe some compensation in the next thirty minutes, and that's if you're smart. If you're dumb enough to want to take this further and bolster your flailing record in the courtroom, here's ten reasons you'd be lucky not to be disbarred." she finished, throwing in the Niijima glare for good measure.
It took twenty minutes before her heels clicked down the steps outside the detention centre, her client right beside her "I... I cannot thank you enough..." He wheezed, still out of breath from how fast his fortunes turned around.
"Then don't," she replied, leading him to the taxi rank "Besides, there's still my fees to pay later."
"Of..of course. My wife should be able to sort something out." he said, ducking into the back of a cab and waving goodbye as Sae checked her watch. She still had time before tonight.
It was one of the curious things about having been a professional since leaving college that Sae Niijima had next to nothing in the way of casual clothing for the evening. She had plenty of neat suits, a few evening dresses and ever since Makoto had left for the college campus she'd acquired a few clothes designated for slumming around the house when she was sure no one would ever see her, but general clothes for casual occasions was something she lacked. Which was a problem considering she was supposed to be going out on a non-date with Akiyama tonight.
At least her case had been wrapped up quickly enough for her to hit the shops, who knows she might actually find something fashionable that she would enjoy wearing every day. 'Or a meteroite might hit the Millenium Tower' she added to herself.
Akiyama had taken a different approach to preparing for tonight's events. Sky Finances had closed earlier than normal and the man in maroon was taking a nice long tiger-nap on the sofa, like a catnap, but bigger. "You should at least try to look decent." Hana complained, ever the wing-woman.
"I put effort into the date, didn't I? Lint roller and dry cleaning, she's not going to mind if the jacket's a little lived-in at this point." Akiyama waved off.
"When was the last time you went bowling?" Hana asked, throwing on a coat as she got ready to leave.
"About a month-" he started.
"Actual bowling, not on a screen with a remote." she added.
"...couple years?" he suggested "It's bowling, you pick it up quickly enough. Besides, it's not like this is going to be a big competition between us. It's an excuse to drink crappy beer and laugh at dumb things that happened to us."
Akiyama was wrong, but he didn't realise how wrong until the fifth frame of the first game. She was already beating him 89 to 34, and she was a drink ahead to top it off. Although that last point was mitigated by the fact that individual sherry trifles had more alcohol content than this beer by the taste of things "Geez, if I knew you were coming in hot like that, I would have gotten some practice rounds in." he winced as the pins scattered before her wrath.
"I thought this was the practice round." Sae said, trying to keep the smugness out of her voice. It wasn't as though she thought of herself as competitive, oh no, she just liked to win and didn't like to lose, so as an occasion where she was allowed to do what she liked, the silver haired attorney joyously crushed the competition with a sincere smile on her face. Anything to take her mind off how damn itchy this new top was, the tag label would be scratching her until she cut it off and threw it in the washer five times, she could tell.
"At least you didn't say anything like loser buys or anything," Akiyama groaned as he stood up to take another poorly aimed swing at a strike. He felt as though he'd be better off kicking the balls down the alley instead of bowling them "So uh..." he said, trying to distract himself from overthinking the art of rolling a heavy ball down a slippery wooden path "What made you leave the prosecutors office?" he asked before throwing his next attempt, knocking most but not all of the pins down in just the right way to make it next to impossible to get the rest on the second attempt.
"Almost getting killed..." Sae sighed under her breath as Akiyama cheered when he managed to pick up the spare.
"Sorry, what was that?" he asked.
"A lot of things adding up." Sae said more clearly.
"Anything in particular? Or just straws breaking camels backs and all that?"
"Well..." Sae began, trying to think of something to sate the sudden curiosity "How familiar are you with the Tojo Clan?" She asked.
Akiyama stiffened up immediately, reaching up to rub between his shoulders to try and play it off as a sudden muscle spasm "The Yakuza?"
"The very same... I was in charge of a big case a few years back," she said, her tone already dropping from the re-lived frustration "Goro Majima, we'd finally caught the Mad Dog of Shimano with enough to make charges stick for good, or so we thought."
"Well he ended up in jail, so what was the problem?" Akiyama asked as Sae sent a ball dashing down the alley with a bit more force than she normally threw into her bowling.
"That's what I thought at the time, we were getting to sentencing and he gets to speak out a few words. And do you know what he said?" She asked, the memories boiling over "He called me the prose-cutest." Sae Niijima spat out as though it were a curse.
Akiyama had the good sense not to laugh but not the sense to not ask "I read the article, he was always a bit crazy so what's the big deal?"
"It was humiliating!" Sae snapped "Here was my big break that I'd worked so hard for, and now all anyone could think about was that dumb bit of flirting by the one-eyed freak! I'd cultivated a reputation as an Ice Queen despite the constant ribbing throughout law school and into the force, I was someone to fear, someone to respect. And this snakeskin wearing jackass pissed it all away! He probably did it on purpose as a last 'taking you with me' deal, ugh!" she ranted, trying not to think about how many people were turning to look at her as she threw a heavy ball straight into the gutter.
"That's bad..." Akiyama said quietly, trying not to provoke another explosion.
"It was never the same in the office after that. Months after I could still hear the chuckles from a few of the detectives." She grumbled, slumping back into the seating.
"So a year of that crap building up and it was too much?" Akiyama asked after Sae started to settle down.
"No... there were other things but that started it all," Sae sighed, leaning her head over the back of the seat "I started to blind myself to everything that wasn't going to give me more respect, even lashing out at my own family."
"Rough," he said, nodding along "Office politics were bad enough before I left my first job too," Leaving the massive fraud that he was framed for go unsaid as he stood up to take his turn "Still keeping in the court room though." He noted.
"As you're still working with money." Sae replied.
"It's what we're good at, I guess," Akiyama conceeded as another heavy ball rolled into the gutter with a sigh "Guess that's one perk to going solo. Not having bosses who need to be kicked in the head."
With a glass of water in one hand and a hangover remedy pre-prepared for the following morning, Sae was starting to get ready for bed when her phone buzzed violently "Makoto," she began after answering "What are you doing up this late?" she asked.
"I was studying, no lectures tomorrow so if needed I can regain lost sleep then. Besides, if I'm training to be a police officer, staying up late is part of the job," she said defensively, probably not the best start to a phone conversation "A-anyway, I was wondering if everything was alright tonight-"
"It wasn't a date." Sae sighed, attempting to end Makoto's inquisition.
"Oh..?" came the unsure reply.
"Think about it like... I don't know. What's the blond boy's name? It's as if you were spending an evening with him instead of paperwork. It means nothing for any relationship beyond friendship." Sae tried to explain. Her sister had boy friends who weren't boyfriends, right? Unless she'd seriously misjudged the intimacy layer within the Phantom Thieves it shouldn't be that hard to understand that not every male/female interaction had a romantic subtext.
"I see," came the calmer comment from Makoto "So how did it go?"
"It went well, thank you," She replied with a faint smile "Now get some sleep or you'll hate the sun in the morning."